Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Chairman, my amendment would designate an additional $50 million within the Superfund accounts specifically for the enforcement division.

This amendment does not take money from other programs. Rather, it designates a portion of already allocated monies for enforcement. It is revenue neutral and would equal the amount the EPA said it needs to hold accountable those companies which have polluted the lakes, streams, and even the homes of my constituents and our constituents.

As I mentioned yesterday, there are still well over 1,000 active Superfund sites across this great Nation. In my district alone and home to the author of the Superfund bill, there are over 13 sites that are still contaminated today.

I want to tell you about just three of those sites, in particular, named for the company responsible for dumping lead and arsenic into the ground, streams, and the lakes. It is called the Sherwin-Williams Sites. These sites include Sherwin-Williams/Hilliard's Creek Site located in both Gibbsboro and Voorhees, the Route 561 Dump Site in Gibbsboro, and the United States Avenue Burn Site, which is in Gibbsboro.

Early in the 1930s, Sherwin-Williams purchased a former paint and varnish manufacturing plant in Gibbsboro and expanded their operation throughout that facility. For 20 years, the company allowed these chemicals from their synthetic varnish to be disposed of in that area. The contamination happened not only at the manufacturing plant, but in two separate disposal sites, dump sites that they created. Just one of the Sherwin-Williams disposal methods included pumping sludge into holes in the ground around the property.

These chemicals from the varnish seeped into the groundwater, contaminating not only that property, but properties and streams around the entire area.

The facility was closed in 1977, and Sherwin-Williams tried to pass the bag by selling the property to a developer in 1981. The soil in the groundwater beneath these sites is contaminated with chemicals, including lead and arsenic, which have devastating effects on both human health and children's development. After the devastating events in Flint, Michigan, I know we understand so many of the horrific effects of lead exposure, but I think it bears repeating what my constituents and Americans across the country are facing.

Lead exposure can have serious long-term health consequences in adults and children. Even at low levels lead in children can cause IQ deficiencies, learning disabilities, impaired hearing, many of those things that we have heard about over the past few months. It also leads to problems in pregnant women and also harms fetuses. According to EPA, long-term exposure to high levels of arsenic can lead to skin lesions and a variety of cancers, including skin, bladder, and lung cancer.

We must hold companies like Sherwin-Williams accountable for the havoc that they have caused in both Gibbsboro and Voorhees. For almost 40 years, this ground has laid there. For the author of the Superfund bill, Jim Florio, this was one of the driving forces for writing this, and yet 40 years later it stays there, still not being addressed by the company that caused it. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this amendment.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that. Jim Florio's vision, unfortunately, caused by this site, just being one of many in New Jersey and in this site, but the fact of the matter is we have to hold accountable those companies that are still active, that are still making profits today while the cause that they had in these two particular sites still go unaddressed. Forty years, the company is still making money, still not being held accountable. This is one way we can start holding them accountable.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source