Don’t Mess With a Formula That Works : Superfund: An innovative approach to San Gabriel Valley water pollution is put at risk by proposed House amendments.

Congress is considering Superfund amendments that would dangerously derail ground water cleanup efforts in the San Gabriel Valley.

The Superfund reform bill, HR 2500, now moving through the House, would undermine years of cooperation between public and private parties. The innovative solution already under way is just the type of cleanup effort we should be promoting--one that cuts the red tape and the cost. To keep this local success story on track, I have joined forces with my California colleagues Reps. Brian P. Bilbray (R-San Diego) and David Dreier (R-San Dimas) in an amendment that would protect the agreements reached under the current cleanup plan. As written, HR 2500 would allow an entirely new cleanup plan to be imposed, using revised standards. Our bipartisan amendment effort will benefit the people of Southern California in more ways than one.

Debate about reforming environmental laws often generates more fiery rhetoric than cool-headed insight. Too much time is wasted on pointing fingers and not enough on the constructive task of distinguishing between what works and what needs fixing. The saga of the San Gabriel Superfund cleanup is case in point. It’s a lesson learned in our own backyard.

In 1984, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency placed four toxic areas in the San Gabriel Valley ground water basin on the Superfund’s most hazardous waste sites. The basin, one of the largest underground aquifers in the United States, provides drinking water for more than 1 million residents and businesses in Southern California. The discovery of high contamination levels in the aquifer presented a massive urgent problem. Our aquifer gained the dubious distinction as the largest, most heavily polluted ground water basin in the nation.

Cleaning up this vital water source became a top priority. It has proved a daunting task. Clearly, the Superfund law was not designed to tackle situations as complex and extensive as that posed by the San Gabriel Basin site. Instead of helping to clean up lethal accumulations of waste, the law only encouraged lawyers to bill countless hours sorting out who should pay and how much. An additional complication was a tangle of bureaucracy responsibility for ground water quality in the 167-square-mile basin.

The basin saga had all the makings of an epic tragedy, but the latest chapters have been remarkably encouraging. Cleanup efforts under way have become a national model for faster, cheaper, smarter Superfund operations.

The San Gabriel Basin Demonstration Act was based on the principle that the best way to resolve conflict is to bring divergent parties to the table, identify shared interests, develop incentives to facilitate settlement and hammer out a consensus. Such a do-it-ourselves approach required regulatory flexibility and local control. Initial efforts were mixed. But like castaways in the same boat, the various stakeholders began to row together.

The EPA took steps to accelerate the settlement process and affected businesses forswore lawsuits in exchange for lower cleanup bills. In addition, local water providers agreed to participate in a creative plan to help defray the cost of cleanup by combining it with a water supply project. The San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority also has played an essential role in bringing the idea of a voluntary public/private partnership to fruition. The authority successfully spearheaded a financing plan for remediation of the most contaminated site, the linchpin of which permits local and regional water providers to pay for part of the cleanup costs by selling the cleaned water.

With water agencies gaining the right to resell the purified water, the 16 businesses most responsible for the pollution gain a significant reduction in the overall costs they would normally be expected to pay. In exchange, the companies must agree not to delay the process by taking other companies to court in an attempt to deflect responsibility. Valley consumers and businesses that depend on the reliability of the local water supply also reap big benefits from this plan.

The shadow of Superfund in the San Gabriel Valley is shrinking at a savings of millions of dollars and years of delay. The only losers in all this are the Superfund lawyers.