WASHINGTON -- Salt Lake Mayor Deedee Corradini helped kick off a drive in Congress Thursday for a bill considered top priority by national mayors. The bill makes easier to clean up toxic-waste "brownfield" sites.
Corradini, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, appeared at a Capitol Hill press conference introducing the compromise legislation worked out by virtually all wings of Republican and Democratic parties.She said many businesses nationwide won't buy or develop areas with suspected toxic contamination "for fear of Superfund lawsuits."
So, she said, businesses instead flee to suburban and rural areas, leaving pockets of blight behind in cities. "We can't keep going at this rate if we are going to have any open space left in this country," she said.
Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., main sponsor of the "Recycle America's Land" bill, said it would clarify and amend current law exempting innocent landowners and prospective purchasers from liability for site cleanup.
It would also help provide more funds for the Superfund toxic cleanup program and block lawsuits against companies that innocently sent garbage to some sites for recycling -- only to be sued years later because their materials were found among toxics.
Boehlert said,"By knocking down the barriers caused by fear of Superfund liability, we will encourage the cleanup of over 500,000 brownfields across the country."
A long line of Republicans and Democrats representing most major factions and caucuses of both parties issued statements in support of the bill -- after it dropped out many controversial items that prevented similar bills from passing previously.
Rep. Cal Dooley, D-Calif, a cosponsor said, "This should break the logjam that has stalled reform for so many years."