CONTAMINATED FORMER DIAZ CHEMICAL SITE IN HOLLEY IS A MAJOR DRAG ON THE LOCAL ECONOMY; LOWERS TAX BASE, HURTS PROPERTY VALUES & THWARTS NEW COMPANIES & JOBS FROM COMING INTO TOWN – PLAN TO REVITALIZE SITE IS IN PLACE, BUT INSUFFICIENT FED FUNDING PREVENTING IT FROM GETTING UNDERWAY; SENATOR PUSHES NEW PLAN TO FUND TOXIC SITE CLEAN- UPS, INCLUDING TAXING POLLUTERS NATIONWIDE
Diaz Chemical Was Holley’s Largest Private Employer & Taxpayer
Until It Closed in 2003 Following The Release of A Toxic Chemical Cloud
That Contaminated Homes & Caused Significant Health Problems –
Facility Was Declared a Federal Superfund Site, Making It Eligible For
Fed Funding & Assistance For Clean-Up & Revitalization, But Superfund
Program Has Insufficient Funds & Work Has Not Begun Even Though A
Plan Is In Place
Schumer Launches Two-Pronged Plan to Increase Funding For Superfund Program
So Projects Like Diaz Chemical Clean-Up Can Get Underway – Pushes
To Reinstate Requirement That Polluting Industries Contribute To Superfund
Clean-Ups & Vows To Secure More Funding Through Budget Process
Schumer: Residents of Holley Should Not Have To Wait Any Longer For Long
Overdue Diaz Chemical Clean-Up To Begin
Last week, at the former Diaz Chemical Plant in Holley, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer announced he is pushing new legislation that will increase funds for the federal Superfund program, which helps clean up and revitalize contaminated industrial sites like Diaz Chemical but is sorely underfunded. Diaz Chemical was the largest private employer and taxpayer in Holley before closing its doors in 2003 following an accidental release of a toxic mix of chemicals into the air, which contaminated nearby homes and caused significant health problems. The site was declared a Superfund site by the EPA in 2004 – making it eligible for federal funding for clean-up – but, despite this designation, it has sat abandoned for over a decade and become a drain on the local tax base and thwarted local economic development efforts. Plans have been in place for over two years to completely clean up and revitalize the site, but the lack of federal funding for the Superfund program has prevented the project’s final cleanup plan from getting underway. Schumer announced that he is supporting legislation, introduced by Senators Booker, Menendez and Boxer, that would reinstate a tax requiring polluters nationwide to contribute to the Superfund program, and he also announced that he is pushing for an increase in overall funding for the Superfund program through the annual budgeting process, so sites like Diaz Chemical can be revitalized and become thriving economic engines once again.
“We need to infuse the Superfund program with the money needed to finally clean-up super messes like that left by Diaz Chemical here in Holley. The lack of progress in cleaning up the former Diaz Chemical site has put a strain on the Town of Holley and Orleans County economy for over a decade now; lowering the tax base, hurting property values, and thwarting efforts by local leaders to attract new businesses to come into the area and create jobs at a cleaned-up site,” said Schumer. “The EPA approved a multi-million dollar plan two years ago to clean up this site, and it is beyond time to get that work underway by increasing the amount of money available to clean up sites like Holley that are designated as Superfund priorities.
“That is why I am launching a two-pronged push to increase funding for the Superfund program – first, I will be pushing my colleagues in the Senate to reinstate a tax that requires polluting industries to pay into the Superfund trust, because it is only fair that those most responsible for these toxic sites help to foot the bill for clean-up. Second, I will be pushing to increase funding for the Superfund program through the annual appropriations process. Residents of Holley have waited far too long for this site to become viable again, and I will do everything in my power to get the funding the program needs so clean-up projects like the one at Diaz Chemical can get underway.”
The Superfund is the federal government's program to clean up the nation's abandoned hazardous waste sites. Schumer explained that the Diaz Chemical site in Holley has been defunct for over twelve years now, since a toxic leak in 2002 and the plant’s subsequent closure in 2003. Between 2003 and 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) added Diaz Chemical to the Superfund list, which made it eligible for federal funding and support, and conducted approximately $12 million in initial clean-up activities, including the removal of over 100,000 gallons of waste and the purchase of eight neighboring homes whose owners were relocated by the EPA. Then in 2012, the EPA designated and selected a final $14.5 million clean-up plan for the Holley site, which was designed to return the site to productive commercial use by treating and removing the contaminants remaining in the soil and groundwater, as well as demolishing any on-site building required to gain access to contaminated soil. Under the plan, the EPA also committed to release the eight homes it acquired and get the properties back on the tax rolls by putting them up for sale, something that is possible because the EPA determined the properties are free of any contamination caused by the Diaz release.
Despite being declared a federal Superfund site and therefore being eligible for federal assistance to clean up and revitalize the area, implementation of the Holley site's approved final cleanup work – announced two years ago – has not yet started. Schumer explained that, even though there is a multi-million dollar plan in place to once and for all clean up the Diaz Chemical Superfund Site and ready the site for new commercial use, the lack of sufficient federal funding for the Superfund Program is stalling progress. That is why Schumer is launching his two-pronged plan to increase funding for the Superfund Program overall, so that many projects, like the Diaz Chemical clean-up, can get underway. As of August 2014 there are 1,318 sites on the National Priorities List, of which 86 are in New York.
Schumer was joined by Holley Village Mayor John Kenney, Village Trustees Skip Carpenter and Kevin Lynch, and other local officials.
“I fear that so long as the Superfund trust is left unfunded and depleted, the Diaz site clean-up will remain stalled,” said John Kenney, Mayor of the Village of Holley. “It has now been twelve years since the Diaz chemical release contamination and two years since the EPA announced a final cleanup plan but the clean-up remains far from complete. I appreciate Senator Schumer’s support to once again require polluting industries to pay into the Superfund trust so that orphaned contaminated industrial sites like the Diaz site can be cleaned up and restored back for commercial development to support our tax base and attract business back to our area.”
Congress created the Superfund program in 1980 to address the nation’s most serious hazardous waste sites. The Superfund was funded through a requirement that polluters pay into the Superfund trust, but this requirement expired in the mid-1990s and by 2003 the Superfund trust was depleted, drastically slowing the pace of cleanup. For example, between the years of 1992 and 2000 when the trust fund was funded, EPA completed an average of 80 Superfund cleanups each year. But by 2013, the EPA only completed work at 14 Superfund sites and removed seven sites from its National Priorities List, the lowest total number of construction completions and deletions from the NPL since 1997. Without the re-instatement of the now-expired “polluter pays” requirement, the Superfund program has been funded at a reduced level by an annual appropriation out of general revenues in the federal budget. Since the “polluter pays” tax expired in 1995, the Superfund balance severely declined from $3 billion in 1996 and was depleted by 2003. Since 2003, it has been funded by a direct appropriation from the general budget to EPA in the range of about $1 billion to $1.2 billion.
“Like your mother always said, the bottom line is that if you make a mess, you must clean it up. And passing this bill to reestablish the ‘polluter pays’ provision will do just that, while saving taxpayers from footing the bill for pollution clean-up,” said Schumer.
Therefore, Schumer is pushing legislation that would secure more funding for Superfund site clean-up by reinstating the now-expired requirement that mandates that polluters pay into the Superfund trust fund, which is now largely depleted. Schumer explained that re-establishing this “polluter pays” dedicated funding stream for the Superfund trust fund will better ensure there are adequate funds available to utilize when a site like Diaz Chemical, which has been waiting for over a decade, needs to be cleaned up and can no longer wait. Schumer said that it is unfair for taxpayers to shoulder the full cost of clean-up when there are current industrial polluters adding to the contamination that should be held accountable. Schumer said that waiting this long to clean up a former contaminated site is a hindrance to the economy when it can be revitalized and used as a site for economic development. With the eight homes formerly valued at a combined estimated $700,000 off the tax rolls, in addition to the five-acre Diaz site, the Village of Holley continues to lose an estimated $100,000-$300,000 in net revenues each year. Moreover, the dilapidated, contaminated site is a scar on the Village’s neighboring residential area, bringing down property value, in addition to lowering the tax base and thwarting new companies’ ability to come into town, use the site and create jobs.
As an added measure, Schumer's second prong in his plan is to push for increased annual appropriations for the EPA in future appropriations bills so that more funding is available to clean up sites in the interim. He is also calling on the EPA to swiftly move to put the eight properties that have been deemed as not contaminated back on the market, and provide a specific timeline to Village officials to detail how this will be accomplished within the next 90 days.
A copy of Senator Schumer’s letter to the EPA appears below:
Dear EPA Administrator,
I write to ask for the EPA’s continued attention to the cleanup of the Diaz Chemical Superfund site in Holley, New York. It has been over twelve years since the now defunct Diaz Chemical facility accidentally released a noxious 75-gallon cloud of steam, toluene, and 2-choloro-6-fluorophenol (CFP) that blew through the Village causing homes to be contaminated and residents to experience sore throats, headaches, eye irritations, nosebleeds and skin rashes.
I appreciate that the EPA recognized the five-acre Diaz Chemical site as dangerous and added it to the Superfund list of the most contaminated hazardous waste sites in 2004 when Diaz went bankrupt and out of business. Subsequently EPA conducted approximately $12 million in initial clean-up activities between 2003-2007 including the removal of over 100,000 gallons of waste and the purchase of eight neighboring homes whose owners were relocated by the EPA. This culminated in the EPA selecting a final $14.5 million cleanup plan in 2012 to return the site to productive commercial use by treating and/or remove the volatile and semi-volatile contaminants remaining in the soil and groundwater and demolishing any on-site buildings required to gain access to contaminated soil, as well as putting the eight houses back on the market for sale since EPA determined they are free of any contamination from the Diaz release.
But in the nearly two years since the EPA selected the final cleanup plan the remediation of the Diaz Chemical Superfund site remains far from complete and the eight homes have not been put up for sale. The result has been a drain to the Village of Holley’s tax base. With the eight homes formerly valued at a combined estimated $700,000 off the tax rolls in addition to the five-acre Diaz site, the Village continues to lose an estimated $100,000-$300,000 each year. Moreover the dilapidated contaminated site is a blight on the Village’s neighboring residential area.
I understand the lack of adequate funding in the Superfund trust has limited EPA’s progress to complete remediation work on sites like Diaz. Without question polluters should be required to again pay into the Superfund trust to safeguard taxpayers from having to otherwise shoulder the full cost to cleanup these abandoned and contaminated industrial sites. That is why I am supporting legislation to reinstate the now-expired requirement that petroleum and chemical industries must pay into the Superfund trust and likewise will support increased annual appropriations for the EPA to conduct remediation at Superfund sites.
In turn, I ask that the EPA to apply any funding increase to expeditiously complete the $14.5M final cleanup work to the Diaz Chemical site. Additionally I ask that you swiftly move to put the cleared eight properties back on the market and provide a specific timeline to Village officials to detail how this will be accomplished within the next 90 days.
I appreciate your consideration of these requests.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Schumer