Congressman Blumenauer spoke this week before members of the OSU Superfund Research Program (SRP) in Portland. Superfund was designed to help with the cleanup and rehabilitation of polluted lands and waterways. The SRP, authorized in a 1986 amendment to that law, is tasked with finding advanced techniques for detection, assessment, and evaluation of effects on human health of hazardous substances, methods and technologies to detect hazardous substances in the environment, and basic biological, chemical, and physical methods to reduce the amount and toxicity of hazardous substances.

Congressman Blumenauer has spent much of his career working on the contaminated Portland Harbor, which was designated a Superfund site in 2000. He has been working with stakeholders at the local and national level, including EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Regional Administrator Dennis McLerran to move process forward. In addition, the Congressman has introduced legislation to reinstate the Superfund Tax. Monies collected from this tax on the petrochemical industry were used to clean up “orphan” sites, or contaminated areas where the liable party could not be determined or no longer existed. The tax expired in 1995.