Where does the money for cleaning up Superfund sites come from?
The Superfund Trust Fund was set up to pay for the cleanup of sites. The money comes mainly from taxes on the chemical and petrochemical industries. The Trust Fund is used primarily when those companies or people responsible for contamination at Superfund sites cannot be found, or cannot perform or pay for the cleanup work. USEPA and NJDEP can expend public monies to complete the required site work and seek treble damages from the responsible party. The possibility of having to pay three times the state’s cleanup costs has been and continues to be a significant incentive for responsible parties to clean up their own sites. More than a billion dollars from the Superfund program has been funneled to New Jersey sites since the early 1980s. During the remedial process at publicly funded Superfund sites, USEPA usually provides 100 percent of the funding for investigation and design work. USEPA normally provides 90 percent of the funding for Remedial Action work, with NJDEP paying for the re
