Big Business Dodging Toxic Cleanup Costs, Group Charges

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April 26, 2007 5:12 PM

Corporations responsible for hundreds of the most toxic sites in the United States spent nearly as much money lobbying politicians and funding political campaigns as they did repaying the government for cleaning up their messes, according to a new analysis by a Washington, D.C. watchdog group.

As a result, the companies may dodge hundreds of millions in cleanup fees, charges the non-profit, non-partisan Center for Public Integrity.

Companies like petroleum giant Exxon Mobil Corp. or defense contracting giant Raytheon are among the roughly 100 businesses responsible for the vast majority of privately controlled polluted or contaminated "Superfund" sites throughout the United States, according to the new report by the Center for Public Integrity.

Half of all Americans live within 10 miles of a Superfund site, the group said.

Between 1998 and 2005, those companies repaid the federal government $1.3 billion for the cost of cleaning up their toxic sites. During the same period, those companies also spent $1.2 billion on lobbying and political donations.

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As those companies pumped money into the coffers of Washington's lobbyists and lawmakers, their cleanup fees slowed to a trickle. While in 1999 those corporations repaid a total of $320 million to the Environmental Protection Agency, which manages the Superfund cleanup effort, those same companies paid just $60 million in 2006.

"This is what goes on in Washington. It's no surprise," said CPI Director Bill Buzenberg, who explained that many companies hire former EPA officials to help them convince the agency to go easy on them. "It's cost effective. You pay a few million and get a few hundred million in savings."

ExxonMobil and Raytheon did not respond with comment for this story.

This post has been updated.