The State Superfund was fully funded through the voter approved, 1986 $1.1 billion Environmental Quality Bond Act. Unfortunately, that money has run dry, stranding almost 800 known sites in need of investigation and cleanup with no funding source. The Superfund is officially bankrupt as of April 1, 2001. The debt will be paid back half through industry fees and half through the General Fund.

The Governor's bill proposes to spend $138 million annually for three cleanup programs, including Superfund. This proposal splits the cost of the program evenly between industry fees and the General Fund. Approximately $90 million per year will be spent on Superfund. That level will lead to a twenty-year timeline to clean up all known sites.

The proposal by Assemblymember Grannis and Senator LaValle (A. 1858, S. 2402) will generate approximately $277 million annually for Superfund, with industry fees covering 75% of the cost, and the General Fund covering the rest. A. 1858, S. 2402 will fully fund the Superfund to clean up all known sites in a ten-year timeline. The fees are structured to discourage the use of toxic chemicals.

The current regulatory goal for the Superfund program is to clean a site to "pre-disposal conditions." Where that is not possible, the DEC has soil cleanup guidelines and groundwater standards and tailors site-specific cleanups, with the long-term goal of a complete remediation.

The Governor's bill eliminates the pre-disposal cleanup goal of Superfund. In its place, the proposal creates a new risk based clean up policy that relies heavily on institutional controls to restrict the use of the site, and caps and barriers to cover contamination.

A. 1858, S. 2402 codifies the pre-disposal regulatory cleanup goal of Superfund into law. The DEC will continue to tailor cleanups to site-specific conditions when necessary, following existing soil cleanup guidance levels, with community input into the process.

The current "strict, joint and several" liability standard makes it very difficult for polluters to avoid paying for DEC ordered cleanups through court proceedings.

A. 1858, S. 2402 maintains the current tough "strict, joint and several" liability standard.