EPA cuts funds for waste cleanup at Corinna site

WASHINGTON – The federal government is holding back millions of dollars in funding to clean up hazardous waste at the Eastland Woolen Mill site in Corinna, Maine, because the Bush administration has decided to close the money spigot.

According to a report from the Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general, the Eastland Woolen Mill is one of a handful of designated Superfund sites in New England and dozens more around the country that are receiving substantially less money than originally anticipated for the year.

Thirty-three sites in 18 states will receive no money at all.

While the small town of Corinna, population 2,145, had been expecting to see $12 million to clean up its village during fiscal year 2002, the EPA has released just $5 million, according to the report.

Cleanup crews already have removed most of the contaminated soil from the Corinna town center where the 90-year-old mill once was located, but wool-dyeing chemicals that were routinely dumped into the east branch of the Sebasticook River for decades continue to contaminate the area “significantly,” according to an EPA analysis.

“Our entire village has been torn down, so we have high hopes that this will soon be completed,” said Corinna Town Manager Judith Doore, who said Tuesday that she was unaware of any funding slowdown.

So far, the EPA has spent $36 million, including the $5 million this year, on the Corinna project. Total cleanup is estimated to cost $43 million. If total funding were distributed this year, the cleanup would be completed by early 2003, Doore said.

Sen. Olympia Snowe has not yet received word on the reduction in requested funding for the site, spokesman Dave Lackey said Tuesday.

“If this is the case, she will want a full briefing,” Lackey said. “She has worked very hard on this and would like to see the funding continue at the prescribed rate.”

Cutbacks to the EPA’s toxic waste cleanup program have been known for some time, but details involving those cuts were made public for the first time Monday when Democratic members of Congress released the EPA inspector general’s report about what sites have been most affected.

Five New England toxic waste sites, among the most severely contaminated in the nation, are also facing a total funding shortfall of more than $47 million – part of a $227 million budget gap that affects 77 Superfund sites in 19 states.

Congressional Democrats pounced on the report, requested by Democratic Reps. John Dingell of Michigan and Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, as evidence that the Bush administration does not consider environmental protection to be a priority.

“There is no legitimate reason why the administration would abandon its cleanup even as they open their checkbook for special-interests tax giveaways for the oil and gas industry,” said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. “Taxpayers shouldn’t be left to foot the bill and suffer the public health consequences of dangerous toxins left behind by polluters.”

A senior EPA spokesperson called the report misleading and said that it reflects a “snapshot in time,” and predicted that many sites would end up getting more money later this year.

“It’s not as bleak as they make it sound,” the spokesperson said.

The EPA’s regional offices requested $450 million for remedial actions at 77 sites that sought additional funding for fiscal year 2002, which ends in September, but only $224 million has been allocated so far, the report said.

New England’s biggest loser is the Elizabeth Mine site in Strafford, Vt. Copper had been excavated there since the late 18th century, and chemicals gradually leached into the groundwater, contaminating rivers and endangering wildlife. The project is slated to receive none of the $15 million officials had requested.