Exemptions for Superfund Liability are Dangerous
Peter Anderson
This lobbying to exempt landfills from superfund liability for PFAS contamination would be a terrible precedent.
The landfill industry is notorious for accepting known bad stuff, like aluminum dross, so long as it boosts revenues. If we acquiesce to going down this road, we’re almost certain to be skunked in the end with language that opens the door for lots more than we ever imagined so that they can paper over their depredations. -- Peter
PRESS RELEASE
NWRA Seeks Relief from CERCLA Liability for PFAS at Landfills
May 12, 2022
NWRA joined with SWANA in a letter to the leadership of the Senate Environment and Public Works, House Transportation and Infrastructure, and House Energy and Commerce committees urging Congress to provide the municipal solid waste industry with a narrow exemption from certain provisions of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). NWRA is concerned that there would be significant unintended consequences if landfills were held liable under CERCLA for receiving per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
“NWRA supports the goal of addressing PFAS contamination and holding accountable manufacturers and heavy users of these compounds,” said NWRA President and CEO Darrell Smith. “We believe that a narrow exemption for the municipal solid waste industry serves to keep CERCLA liability on the industries that created the pollution. We urge Congress to support our request.”
In its letter, NWRA and SWANA recommended legislative language to CERCLA that would grant the industry the narrow exemption it seeks.
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Peter Anderson, Executive Director
CENTER for a COMPETITIVE WASTE INDUSTRY
5749 Bittersweet Place ● Madison, WI 53705
Email: ande...@competitivewaste.org
Off: (608) 231-1100 ● Cell: (608) 444-2817
Fax: (931) 233-6167
When I was born in 1947, the level of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere was 310 parts per million, barely
10% more than the 280 ppm in pre-industrial times.
Today, CO2 levels are 415 ppm, 50% greater
than when the Age of the Machine began.
The last time CO2 levels were this high was
2 million years ago, long before our species
evolved and later left Africa, when the world's
seas were nearly 100 feet higher, and global surface
temperature was 11°F warmer, with beech trees at the
South Pole, on a hot house planet incompatable
with human civilization.