Lack of Funding Slows Cleanup Of Hundreds of Superfund Sites

"These sites that are coming on line don't present the same kinds of risks that defined the program in the beginning, both in terms of size and in terms of cost," Angell said.

Democrats and many environmentalists question that assessment, because sites such as Coeur D'Alene and Tar Creek have been on the program's National Priorities List since the 1980s. The bigger problem, they say, is that Republicans have declined to renew two corporate taxes that fed billions into the Superfund trust fund since 1980, and the program's spending power is shrinking. The Government Accountability Office calculated that the budget declined by 34 percent over the past decade, considering inflation.

The taxes -- one on oil and chemical companies, the other a general environmental tax on corporations -- expired in 1995. Bill Clinton pushed to reinstate them during his presidency, but Congress refused. Now that Republicans control both the legislative and executive branches, all sides say there is little chance the two levies -- which could bring in $16 billion over the next decade -- will be revived.

"It's such an outrage," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who plans to press for a tax next year on companies that make and sell toxins. "Cleaning up Superfund sites should be one of our highest national health priorities."

Bush administration officials say the president has pressed to increase Superfund's long-term cleanup budget of about $260 million, asking for an additional $150 million this year and last.

"There is little question in my mind if Congress chooses to allocate more dollars this year as a priority, it can be spent doing important cleanups," said EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt, who visited the Omaha lead site in October. "The problem is, our pocketbook does not stretch across all the places our heart responds to."

Congress, however, has shown little appetite for providing Superfund with more money. Lawmakers recently voted to give the program $1.257 billion, $8 million less than last year's budget. Rep. James T. Walsh (R-N.Y.), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees Superfund, said that the White House did not actively lobby for the extra $150 million Bush requested, and that appropriators could not devote more money in light of the tight budget. "We can only spend what we have," he said.

Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.), who represents Omaha and was one of 15 House Republicans to vote last year for an unsuccessful amendment to add $114 million to Superfund, said his colleagues are not focused on toxic waste cleanups. "Just sitting around the Members' Dining Room, I just don't hear this issue coming up," he said.

In Omaha, people are angry, even though EPA authorities are cleaning up 10 contaminated yards a week at a cost of $13,000 to $16,000 per yard. As many as 87,000 residents -- and 9,400 children under 7, who are most vulnerable to lead poisoning -- live in the affected area, which stretches across 8,840 acres on the city's east side.

It is an area where the local grocery store advertises malt liquor for 89 cents a can, the children no longer play in their back yards and families cannot afford to move. The mining company that spewed much of the lead into Omaha's air, Asarco Inc., is responsible for sites that will cost $1 billion to clean up nationwide but will fund just a fraction of that amount. It agreed last year to pay the federal government $100 million for all the sites its facilities affected in exchange for a three-year moratorium on lawsuits.

This past year the Omaha site received $5.7 million from the government and $2 million from the Asarco settlement. Bob Feild, EPA's site project coordinator, said the agency is trying to save money by forcing contractors to compete and by experimenting with treating the soil with phosphates that minimize the effects of lead.

Lead not only causes severe developmental problems in children, said Bruce P. Lanphear, a pediatrics professor at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, but has also been linked to spontaneous abortions, miscarriages and tooth decay.

Nebraska Republicans and Democrats continue to lobby for more money, and Feild said that the site remains a top EPA priority, but that he cannot predict whether the cleanup will take six years or a dozen. The total bill could be $215 million, and Feild is likely to receive just a fraction this year of the $26 million he first publicly estimated he needed.

"I guess if they want not to succeed, this is the way to go," said Adi M. Pour, health director in Douglas County, Neb.

Samantha Bradley, a feisty 8-year-old who confronted EPA chief Leavitt at a news conference last month, remains convinced the federal government is ignoring her.

"If the president or the mayor lived in this neighborhood, they'd probably get it cleaned up like that," she said, snapping her fingers.