Clean-up work at Superfund sites hinges on whether the site’s original polluters have been found and mandated to pay, as well as money available in the EPA budget, the EPA said. An agency spokesperson noted that since 1996, there have only been two years when the Superfund program was fully funded.
Over time, funding the Superfund program has become less of a priority for Congress, according to Michael Greenberg, a distinguished professor at Rutgers’ Bloustein School who studies Superfund redevelopment.
“We clearly are seeing a winding down, not of the sites but of the money,” Greenberg said.