Letter to the Hon. Mitch McConnell and the Hon. Charles E. Schumer - Reject Trump Superfund

Letter

Dear Leader McConnell and Leader Schumer:

I write you to express concerns regarding the nomination of Peter C. Wright as assistant administrator for the office of Land and Emergency Management of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which oversees the National Priorities List or "Superfund" program. As the Representative of a district with three Superfund sites, it is of the utmost importance to my constituents that the Administrator of the Superfund program prioritizes cleanup of these areas, rather than reducing polluters' liability. It is my belief that Mr. Wright is not that candidate and fails to meet this important public interest test.

Mr. Wright's self-professed central qualification for this position is his work in Dow Chemical's headquarters at the Midland, Michigan cleanup site, where he earned his unofficial title as the "company's dioxin lawyer" . Mr. Wright was first assigned to the Midland cleanup project in 2003, the year after Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality alerted residents to "the presence of significant concentrations of dioxin" in local soil . Additionally, the EPA said in an August 2007 memo that "Dow has frequently provided information to the public that contradicts agency positions, and generally accepted scientific information." A Dow newsletter mailed to residents in 2004 stated that there were minimal health effects associated with exposure to dioxin, citing a health study conducted by Dow Chemical that was contested and dismissed by the EPA .

In a 2017 email to the EPA's chief of staff, made public last month through court proceedings, Mr. Wright called it "the most controversial matter and the single most publicly successful matter that I have worked on at Dow" . The "success" Mr. Wright professed was his ability to slow walk the federal government and lower the burden of responsibility that Dow would hold in the cleanup project. Mr. Wright's tactics even resulted in suspending cleanup negotiations with the EPA in 2008, "EPA does not believe that the deal Dow is offering goes far enough," said Ralph Dollhopf, Associate Director for the Superfund Division of EPA's Regional Office in Chicago.

"Key issues that are paramount for protecting human health and the environment remain unresolved. EPA simply will not accept any deal that is not comprehensive" . Regional Administrator Mary A. Gade went further after the negotiations soured, "I am extremely disappointed with this outcome… EPA approached negotiations with high hopes and realistic expectations. Our team put in many long hours of good faith efforts that came to an unfortunate end today. EPA is now reviewing its options for ensuring that dioxin contamination in the river system and the Midland area can be fully addressed" . An eventual agreement was reached between Dow Chemical and the EPA in 2010, but only after two years of blame avoidance, inaction, and unwillingness to remediate this site.

Furthermore, Mr. Wright personally sought to contest EPA findings that dioxin was harmful to humans. In 2005, Mr. Wright wrote about dioxin risk in an article published by the American Bar Association, described dioxin as "highly toxic to a variety of animal species but not to humans." However, the World Health Organization (WHO) completely debunked Mr. Wrights' assertion at that time; the WHO has previously found that dioxin is a carcinogen and is indeed linked to reproductive and developmental problems while also damaging the immune system . Anyone with a history of employing these deceitful tactics should be precluded from running the oversight and regulatory body of the Superfund program.

Of over 1,300 federally designated Superfund sites, there are three in my home of the 7th Congressional District of New York: the Gowanus Canal, Newtown Creek, and the Wolff-Alport Chemical Company. In 2010, I assisted in securing Superfund designation for the Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek, and in 2014, for Wolff-Alport Chemical Company. I am deeply concerned that the progress we have made over the last decade will be imperiled should Mr. Wright be confirmed to administer the program.

As the Senate moves toward a vote to confirm Mr. Wright, I strongly urge you take into account his career as Dow's lead attorney. New Yorkers and Americans who live near a Superfund site deserve a champion for the public health in this role, not an advocate for corporate interests and a skeptic of environmental science.

Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

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