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Backlog Of Toxic Superfund Cleanups Grows Under Trump

The superfund site is located in Anaconda, Montana.
Mark Halloway
/
Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
The Anaconda Co. Smelter site is listed on the Superfund program's National Priorities List.

The Trump administration is building up the biggest backlog in years of unfunded Superfund projects.

The Environmental Protection Agency released figures over the holidays showing that 34 projects to clean up the nation's most polluted sites stalled last year for lack of money.

That’s nearly three times the number in 2016, the last year of the Obama administration. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler calls the Superfund program a priority for President Donald Trump.

An EPA spokeswoman did not directly respond when asked why the administration had sought to cut congressional funding for EPA and Superfund given the growing cleanup backlog.

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