Senate Rejects Superfund Spending Cuts, Leaves Proposed Funding at $7.5 Billion

The Senate on Friday soundly defeated an attempt to scale back spending for the renewal of the Superfund, leaving proposed funding for the toxic waste cleanup program at $7.5 billion for the next five years.

By a vote of 79 to 15, the Senate rejected an amendment by Sens. Steven D. Symms (R-Ida.) and Jesse Helms (R-N. C.) to reduce funds for the program to a level closer to that sought by the Reagan Administration. President Reagan has threatened to veto anything that gives Superfund more than $5.3 billion over five years.

The Superfund measure, on which the Senate worked a third day Friday, would raise spending for the program nearly fivefold from current levels and would largely finance the increase through a new federal excise tax on big manufacturers.

Citizen Grants Approved

Senators also approved a program that would provide federal grants for citizens living near toxic waste dumps so they could hire independent experts to advise them on possible dangers. Grants of up to $75,000 would be permitted for each site on the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of 850 dumps considered to be the nation’s most dangerous.

Much of the controversy in legislative efforts to renew the Superfund program has been over its size and funding source.

The EPA, which has spent $1.6 billion for Superfund over the last five years, argues that it will be unable to absorb more than the amount requested by the Administration.

But proponents of a larger program contend that the Administration’s plan fails to take inflation into account and foresees cleaning up only a fraction of the thousands of toxic dumps nationwide.

The Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Robert T. Stafford (R-Vt.), would raise $1.5 billion from an extension of the current tax on petroleum and feed stock chemicals and more than $5.4 billion from a new tax on producers of raw materials and manufacturers with gross sales and lease income of $5 million a year. In addition, $500 million would be raised in interest.

‘Value Added’ Tax Disliked

Even many supporters of the bill dislike the new so-called “value added” tax on manufacturers, fearing that the levy would create a precedent for later attempts to raise money through such taxes. But the smaller program envisioned by the Administration is the only alternative to the tax thus far proposed.

“Who will pay the value added tax? The American consumers, obviously,” said Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), who nevertheless declared that he would vote for the bill. “I think it’s the wrong way to go . . . . That’s a very high price to pay in order to pass this legislation.”

The House is considering legislation to raise Superfund spending to $10 billion over five years. The House bill would finance the program from a number of sources, including $1.3 billion from general revenues, $4.5 billion from an unspecified broad-based corporate tax, $1.5 billion from an unspecified tax on toxic wastes and $1.2 billion from an unspecified tax to pay for cleanup of leaking underground petroleum storage tanks.

Environmentalists’ Concerns

Environmentalists prefer the House version over the Senate’s but complain that neither proposal is adequate. They seek an extension to include a mandatory schedule for cleanups and a specific requirement defining how clean the sites must be left. Since its creation in 1980, Superfund has completed cleanup at only six sites.

In addition to providing more money for dump cleanups, the Senate bill would require companies to notify public officials immediately of potential toxic chemical releases.

The existing Superfund law expires Oct. 1, several days before Congress is expected to complete action on a renewal law.