SUPERFUND

In America, Industry has created a serious problem, hazardous waste. Watching these wastes pile up due to such institutions such as plants, mines, military bases and many others has caused the governments to set up a program called Superfund. The problem with this program, is that costs a lot of money and is currently bankrupt. While many sites have been cleaned (886 sites to be exact), there are still many areas of priority to be cleaned (1203 to be exact), which is very difficult considering their lack of money. Another contributor to the downfall of superfund is that the oil and chemical industries that were causing this waste are no longer paying taxes for superfund, instead it is not on the shoulders of the individual taxpayers. While many people are outraged by this and believe the right thing to do is tax the polluters, others argue that if that happened everyone who had something to do with the pollution would need to be taxed, which they call a “nightmare”. This inability to pinpoint who is responsible to pay for superfund, causes the question of how to pay for this, because getting rid of it is not an option.