Three Key Facts:
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- The Salford Quarry Superfund site in Pennsylvania is finally being cleaned up with $19.9 million from the Joe Biden’s clean energy plan, ensuring safer drinking water for over 54,000 residents.
- Additional money will help Pennsylvania communities clean up long-standing toxic sites like the Salford Quarry, improving public health and safety. are waiting for cleanup.
- A reinstated chemical tax will generate $14.5 billion over the next ten years to fund cleanups at Superfund sites nationwide.
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New funding from Joe Biden’s clean energy plan is cleaning up one of Pennsylvania’s dirtiest brownfields. For decades, the Salford Quarry site in Montgomery County has posed an environmental and public health threat to the region. The site had been used since the 1950s as a disposal area for industrial, residential, and commercial waste. Eventually, the buried waste contaminated the local groundwater. The community has sought a solution since the 1990s, when the owner of the land, National Gypsum Company, filed for bankruptcy. The struggling company paid $12 million to clean it up, but court battles and rising costs delayed action. The quarry was finally declared a Superfund site – a designation that allowed the federal government to assume control of cleanup. But rising costs remained a hurdle. Now, thanks to $19.9 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the site will be capped to prevent further pollution. The cleanup means safer drinking water to the community of more than 54,000 residents, many of whom rely on nearby wells for drinking water. Communities are finally getting help There are almost 100 Superfund sites like the Salford Quarry in Pennsylvania. Many communities live with toxic threats nearby, waiting for the money to start cleanup. President Joe Biden’s clean energy plan included a major increase in funds to address this toxic backlog and help people reclaim their neighborhoods. The law also re-established a tax on chemicals to help pay for cleanups across the country. The tax was in place until 1995, but was not renewed by Congress. Now that it has been reinstated, it is expected to raise about $14.5 billion over ten years to continue funding the program. “This funding will help improve people’s lives, especially those who’ve long been on the front lines of pollution,” said EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe. “We have a historic opportunity here to restore hope to communities and to transform these blighted Superfund sites, making them not just safe and habitable, but bustling, vibrant places to live.” The president’s plan supports a number of initiatives across the state. In Pennsylvania, the plan’s impact is evident across a wide range of initiatives – including investments to accelerate new renewable energy projects and clean up drinking water. A recent poll shows that 71% of voters support Joe Biden’s green energy plan and the investments made through the Inflation Reduction Act.
