Pallone Welcomes Cornell-Dubilier Plan

Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. has applauded the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final cleanup plan for the Cornell-Dubilier Electronics Superfund site in South Plainfield, New Jersey. 

The plan is for the cleanup of a nine mile stretch of Bound Brook, which passes next to the former Cornell-Dubilier Electronics facility. The final plan includes dredging PCB-contaminated sediment, excavating soil from the flood plains, excavating an area next to the facility where PCB-containing capacitors were buried, relocating a 36-inch waterline that crosses the former facility, and containing groundwater that discharges from the facility to Bound Brook.

Under the plan, the EPA estimates that this fourth and final phase of the cleanup will cost $252 million. The EPA has recovered some of its costs from parties responsible for the contamination and will continue those efforts.

“I am pleased that EPA is finally moving forward with the final cleanup phase of this toxic site,” said Congressman Pallone.  “Removing public health hazards from this area is incredibly important for South Plainfield and the surrounding communities.” 

Congressman Pallone has consistently held that polluters must be held responsible for cleaning up contaminated sites. He has routinely introduced legislation, the Superfund Polluter Pays Act, which would replenish the Superfund Trust Fund by reinstituting the taxes oil and gas companies paid between 1980 and 1996.

The legislation reinstates a 9.7 cents a barrel tax on petroleum, a tax on 42 chemicals and a corporate environmental income tax of .12 percent on taxable income in excess of $2 million.

This would help ensure that the EPA has sufficient funds available for the costs of investigations and cleanups of these toxic sites.