Toxic Temptation
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TOXIC TEMPTATION The Revolving Door, Bureaucratic Inertia and the Disappointment of the EPA Superfund Program Eric J. Greenberg THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY 1910 K Street N.W., Suite 802 Washington, DC 20006 (202) 223-0299 TOXIC TEMPTATION The Revolving Door, Bureaucratic Inertia and the Disappointment of the EPA Superfund Program Eric J. Greenberg THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY 1910 K Street N.W., Suite 802 Washington, D.C. 20006 (202) 223-0299 "Let the public service be a proud and lively career. And let every man and woman who works in any area of our national government, in any branch, at any level, be able to say with pride and with honor in future years: 'I served the United States government in that hour of our nation's need.'" - John F. Kennedy "To the extent that the public believes that people who move in and out of government are doing so in order to advance their own economic interest as opposed to representing the public interest when they are in government, that's not a good thing for society." -- William D. Ruckelshaus, EPA's first and fifth Administrator, 1991 "I've had it with patriotism: I'm into greed now." - Anne Gorsuch Burford, EPA Administrator, 1981-1983, to Regardie's Magazine, August 1984 The Center for Public Integrity is an independent nonprofit organization that examines public service and ethics-related issues. The Center's Reports combine the substantive study of government with in-depth journalism. The Center is funded by foundations, corporations, labor unions, individuals and revenue from news organizations. This Center Report and the views expressed herein are those of the author. What is written here does not necessarily reflect the views of individual members of the Center for Public Integrity's Board of Directors or Advisory Board. Copyright (c) 1993 THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any other form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the written permission of the Center for Public Integrity. Washington, D.C. 20006 ISBN 1-882583-01-9 The Center for Public Integrity Eric J. Greenberg is an award-winning newspaper reporter based in New Jersey, where he reports on environmental issues. He is the 1991 winner of the Society of Professional Journalists Public Service Reporting Award, an Investigative Reporters and Editors Award and the Washington Journalism Center/Thomas L. Stokes Award for the best environmental investigative reporting in the United States and Canada. He was also a finalist in the 1991 national Livingstone Award for best journalism by a reporter under age 35. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the State University College at Buffalo and did graduate work in urban affairs journalism at the University of Maryland's College of Journalism. The author gratefully acknowledges those who helped in the preparation of this study: Marchel Abner, who assisted in the research, is a senior at Central Missouri State University, where she is pursuing a bachelor's degree in journalism. Bill Baldwin, who assisted in the research and proofreading process, is a senior at the University of Southern California, where he is pursuing a bachelor's degree in English and a bachelor of science degree in Public Administration/Urban and Regional Planning. Cindy Collins, who assisted in the research, layout and proofreading process, holds a master's degree in journalism from The American University and a bachelor's degree in English from the University of California at Berkeley. She writes for The National Jurist and Atlantic News Service. Dain DeMarco, who assisted in the research and proofreading process, is a junior at The American University, majoring in print journalism. Margaret M. Ebrahim, who assisted in the research and proofreading process, is a senior associate at the Center. She holds a master's degree in international affairs from The American University. Spencer Freedman, who assisted in the research, is studying political science as a junior at Brown University. Charles Lewis is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Public Integrity. For 11 years, he did investigative reporting at ABC News and CBS News, most recently as a producer for "60 Minutes." Ned Martel, who assisted in the research, is a reporter for States News Service. He has been an intern at Washington Monthly, received a fellowship from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, and reported for the Naples (FL) Daily News. Joe Minadeo, who assisted in the research, is currently a student of University of Vermont's School of Law. Peter Overby, who edited this study, is an investigative reporter for Common Cause Magazine. His work has also appeared in the Washington Post, Reader's Digest and Utne Reader. Andrew Porterfield, formerly of the Center for Investigative Reporting, conducted research, reporting and interviewing for this study. Diane Renzulli, who assisted in the research, layout and proofreading process, is administrative assistant at the Center. She has a bachelor's degree in English from Georgetown University. TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 INVESTIGATIVE METHODOLOGY 5 SUPERFUND SINCE ITS INCEPTION 7 CONCLUSION: TOO LITTLE TOO LATE 47 TOP OFFICIALS LEAVING EPA 1980-1993 49 Thomas L. Adams, Jr. 50 Alvin Aim 51 Eckhardt C. Beck 53 Barbara D. Blum 55 Anne Gorsuch Burford 56 Douglas M. Costle 64 Thomas W. Devine 67 Gary N. Dietrich 68 Thomas P. Gallagher 70 William N. Hedeman, Jr. 71 John Hernandez 74 Terrell Hunt 77 Merna Kurd 78 Rita M. Lavelle 79 Gene A. Lucero 86 Douglas MacMillan 87 Richard H. Mays 88 Jeffrey Miller 89 Steffen Plehn 90 J. Winston Porter 92 Courtney Price 93 William Reilly 94 William D. Ruckelshaus 102 James N. Smith 110 Lee Thomas 111 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Superfund, the multi-billion dollar program to clean up the nation's worst toxic waste sites, is a promise unfulfilled. Conceived in secrecy and confusion in the waning days of President Jimmy Carter's administration, the program has been plagued with fraud, political manipulation, influence-peddling and contractor terrorism. As of December 1992, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has placed more than 1,200 of the so-called most dangerous hazardous waste sites in the country on the Superfund National Priority List (NPL). But the past decade, despite billions of dollars spent, the EPA has cleaned up fewer than nine percent of them. The remaining 91 percent continue to contaminate water supplies, destroy environmental habitats and contribute to human illness, birth defects, respiratory problems, miscarriages, cancer and even deaths, according to one federal study. Most of the hazardous waste sites already accounted for are hi residential areas. Some of the worst polluted sites hi the nation have not even yet been placed on the national priority list. Formulated behind closed doors in 1980, the Superfund program during the Eighties immediately fell into disarray, hampered by high turnover as employees at all levels left to work for environmental contractors, corporate polluters or law firms. Morale plunged for those who remained. A recent government report revealed that lawyers wind up with most of the money allocated to clean up the toxic sites. Superfund has also fallen victim to partisan politics and has been used as a tool to sway voters at election time. And it has suffered from bureaucratic inertia and at times, ideology, most recently from the now-defunct Council on Competitiveness, headed by former Vice President Dan Quayle. Indeed, in recent years, there have been serious questions about not only the sheer competence and management of the EPA Superfund program, but the actual intent and the degree of aggressive pursuit by Superfund managers. The Center for Public Integrity has learned that: * The EPA has failed to collect Superfund costs of nearly $4 billion since the program began. * The U.S. government stands to lose as much as $5 billion in potentially recoverable cleanup costs from corporate polluters over the next six years if immediate legal action is not taken. One EPA Superfund expert calls the situation a crisis. * Superfund's toughest provision to penalize uncooperative corporate polluters has been implemented fewer than 25 times since 1981. To date, the agency has collected treble damages in only three cases. It remains unknown how many cases, and how much money, were simply never pursued. Part of the problem appears to be the close relationship between the regulators and the regulated. EPA seems to have become a training academy for high-paying jobs in the private sector. The Center has found an endless procession of hazardous waste policy decision-makers who have gone through the "revolving door" from government to industry. Of the top EPA officials who have worked with toxic waste clean-ups and left government since 1980, the Center found that 80 percent of them have gone to firms holding Superfund clean-up contracts or have consulted with or given legal advice to companies about dealing with Superfund. The Revolving Door Superfund is basically a sum of money, now some $15 billion, set aside to finance the cleanup of abandoned or inactive polluted properties. The money comes from taxes on polluting industries, from legal action against polluters at specific sites and from congressional appropriations — that is, the taxpayer. The EPA routinely contracts out Superfund clean-up projects to private firms. Contract costs have skyrocketed. The agency paid Superfund contractors $200 million in 1982; by 1989 those payments had soared to somewhere between $1.2 billion and $1.4 billion. Environmental consulting firms, eyeing the billions of dollars available in Superfund, regularly hire EPA and Superfund officials, who then help win contracts.