Ex-siting

The U.S. EPA has restored Superfund monies to clean up 11 toxic sites, despite having told local officials at the sites that they would not receive any money this year. But only four of the sites will get the full amount requested by the officials. Last month, a report by the agency's inspector general listed 33 sites in 18 states that would not receive requested funds; with the recent shift, that number has dropped to 22. Of the remaining sites, the agency said five do not need funding this year and a handful of other sites might receive money this summer, while many others most likely will not. The announcement of the restored monies comes at a time when the EPA is under fire for making cuts to the Superfund program. (Last week, EPA Administrator Christie Whitman defended the management of the program in an op-ed in the New York Times.) Congress is still trying to decide how much money to allocate for Superfund next year, and whether to reinstate a tax on industry to provide more steady funding for the cleanups.