The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said this week that it will spend $1 billion to initiate cleanup projects at 25 waste sites across the country. The funds are part of the final wave of the $3.5 billion allotted by a 2021 infrastructure law.
“This funding will help improve people’s lives especially those who have long been on the front lines of pollution,” said Deputy EPA Administrator Janet McCabe.
The hazardous sites are in the EPA’s Superfund program, which was launched in 1980 to help transform polluted land into new economic development, such as parks and warehouses. Three-quarters of the sites are in underserved communities, and more than 25% of Black and Hispanic Americans live within 3 miles of the sites, McCabe said.
Three of the sites are located in New Jersey, which has more Superfund sites than any other state. The state expects $23 million over five years, thanks to a reinstated Superfund tax. “Reinstating that Superfund tax is really only about basic fairness that corporate polluters, not taxpayers, should have to pay to clean up the messes that they created,” said New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallonee.
