Senate EPW Hearing Flags Delays, Bureaucracy and Funding Gaps in Superfund Cleanups; Committee Reports Three EPA Nominees

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee convened a business meeting and hearing that combined votes on three presidential nominees with a substantive panel on the EPA Superfund program, where lawmakers and outside experts said the program often prioritizes process over timely cleanup.

Senator Shelley Moore Capito, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, told the panel that Superfund cleanups “directly improve public health, and can revitalize struggling communities,” but said the program’s management has produced lengthy timelines that leave contaminated sites listed but not remediated for years.

The hearing drew testimony from three witnesses: Robert Fox, senior partner at Manko, Gold, Katcher & Fox; Steven Riddell, president of Industrial Development Advantage; and Jay Alfredo Gomez, director for Natural Resources and Environment at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Each described causes of delay and possible reforms.

“First, incentivizing the prompt voluntary cleanup of the nation’s most contaminated sites and second, ensuring that polluters pay for those cleanups,” Robert Fox said, arguing that “the Superfund program has strayed from meeting those goals.” Fox recommended stronger use of statutory tools—such as mixed funding authorities and the orphan-share policy—and deadlines for agency review of private parties’ reports.

Steven…