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NATIONAL Sierra Club's Ten Principles for a Superfund Program that Protects
Public Health and the Environment
The Superfund program must protect the public's health; hold polluters,
rather than taxpayers, responsible for clean-up costs; assure meaningful
community participation in Superfund decisions; improve research on exposure to
toxics and provide enhanced health services to affected communities; enhance the
right to know about toxic chemical use to the greatest extent feasible; protect
natural resources; ensure strong oversight of clean-ups; and apply the same laws
to the federal government as to the private sector.
Maintaining adequate funding to address toxic clean-up issues at all levels of
government is critical to assuring public health and environmental protection.
It is vital that these important objectives be reflected in any legislative
revisions to the Superfund law. However, a great many of these steps forward can
be secured through administrative action under current law.
Ten Principles
- Clean-up programs must protect the health of the entire community,
including children, older people, vulnerable and disproportionately exposed
populations, and clean-up workers.
- Polluters, not taxpayers, should continue to pay for cleaning up waste
sites.
- Affected community residents should be assured accessible opportunities to
participate fully in all stages of Superfund decision-making.
- Public health protection depends on expanded public health research, data
collection and dissemination, and monitoring, diagnosis and treatment for
health effects of exposure to toxics.
- The public's right to know about toxic chemicals must be expanded and
protected.
- Clean water must be preserved and contaminated water sources must be
restored as a resource for our children and their children.
- Clean-ups should restore affected land to productive use wherever possible
to preserve maximum land use options for our children and their children.
- Polluters, not taxpayers, should pay for restoring rivers, bays, fish,
birds, and other natural resources damaged by toxic contamination.
- Conduct or oversight of clean-ups must be undertaken by federal, tribal,
or state entities, including local public health entities, with the
authority, expertise, resources and demonstrated commitment to fully protect
human health and the environment and assure community participation.
- Federal government sites should be required to comply with the same
standards as other toxic waste sites.
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