Making good on a promise to place a greater emphasis on cleaning up contaminated urban industrial sites, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced that it will seek to double the funding for so-called “brownfields” in Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 (which begins on October 1, 2002). The announcement, made in early January, coincided with President Bush’s signing of the “Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act” (H.R. 2869), which also makes additional federal funds available for brownfields clean-ups.
EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman always has maintained that brownfields revitalization is one of President Bush’s environmental priorities. While H.R. 2869 provides liability relief under Superfund for small businesses and prospective purchasers of brownfields sites, it also authorizes up to $200 million annually through Fiscal Year 2006 for grants to assess and clean up such sites. Only $98 million was authorized for brownfields in FY 2002.
When President Bush signed the new law at a former brownfields site in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, he praised the clean-up program, noting that revitalizing such urban sites not only creates jobs, but also preserves green space from further development. Now, the White House has announced that the Administration will support H.R. 2869 by asking for the full $200 million available for brownfields clean-ups in FY ’03. The Bush Administration also will ask for $25 million for urban development and brownfields clean-ups in its FY ’03 budget for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
There is a concern, however, that not all the money authorized will be appropriated. Congress already has diverted funds from EPA’s Superfund program to assist in cleaning up the World Trade Center site and anthrax-contaminated Capitol Hill offices and postal facilities. White House Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge has indicated that the Administration is committed to protecting EPA’s clean-up funds, but there is widespread recognition that the enormous costs of increasing homeland security will cut into other federal programs.
HazMat Industry Wants RSPA Fees Reduced
A coalition of hazardous materials (hazmat) transporters has sent a letter to Ellen Engleman, Administrator of the Department of Transportation’s Research and Special Programs Administration (DOT/RSPA), requesting that the Agency reduce the annual registration fees that must be paid by regulated companies. RSPA reports that it currently has a $16 million surplus as a result of the fees that have been collected since a major increase was imposed in early 2000.
The RSPA fee increase has generated considerable controversy since it was proposed in April 1999. The Agency increased not only the number of persons required to register as a transporter or offeror of hazardous materials, but also the amount of the annual registration fee – in most cases from $300 to $2,000. The proposal widened the base of companies that need to register from 27,000 to about 45,000, and the increased revenue has created a massive surplus. The money collected from hazmat registration fees is used to fund the “Hazardous Materials Emergency Preparedness” (HMEP) grants program, which provides federal financial and technical assistance, national direction, and guidance to enhance state, local, and tribal hazmat emergency planning and training. ILMA, like many hazmat carriers, opposed the increase, and former ILMA Executive Director Richard Ekfelt testified before RSPA in May 1999, outlining the Association’s objections.
The surplus creates an unwelcome dilemma for RSPA because by statute the HMEP program is authorized to pay out only $14.3 million annually. To rectify the situation, in December 2000, RSPA proposed a temporary reduction in the fees. Small businesses still would be required to pay a $300 annual registration fee, but larger companies would pay only $500. The Bush Administration rescinded the proposed rule in May 2001, but RSPA promised to revisit the issue after the start of the new fiscal year, which began on October 1.
RSPA has made no formal announcement about the hazmat registration rule. However, in response to the letter sent by the Dangerous Goods Advisory Council, the Institute of Makers of Explosives, the American Trucking Associations, and others, RSPA officials have indicated that a new Federal Register notice will be issued sometime in March. On December 13, 2001, Senator Max Cleland (D-GA) introduced legislation (S. 1820) that would allow DOT to allocate any surpluses in the HMEP program to state and local governments for hazmat training for emergency responders at the site of the former World Trade Center.
