H.R. 1300 presents a "win-win" opportunity for everyone by achieving cleanup of hazardous waste sites, encouraging property reuse and enhancing community growth. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® supports H.R. 1300, and we encourage the 106th Thank you again for the opportunity to present the views of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. I am happy to answer any questions. NACCHO 1100 17TH STREET, NW, SECOND FLOOR (202) 783-5550 (202) 783-1583 (FAX) NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COUNTY AND CITY HEALTH OFFICIALS Testimony of Thomas L. Milne representing the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COUNTY AND CITY HEALTH OFFICIALS before the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment at a hearing on The Recycle America's Land Act of 1999 May 12, 1999 Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee. I am Executive Director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). NACCHO serves all 3000 of the nation's local health departments – in cities, counties, and townships. Local health departments are the agencies on the front lines in protecting and promoting the health of their communities. I spent 25 years working in local public health, and directed a three-county health district in southwest Washington State for 15 years. We are honored to have this opportunity to comment on HR 1300. We will specifically address the public health and community participation aspects of the Superfund program and explain the applicability of these same concepts to brownfields redevelopment. We believe this bill would significantly strengthen public health and community participation in Superfund and has great potential to assist in responsible development of brownfields. We are grateful for the attention you have given to the public health role in Superfund, including the role of local public health departments. 1. Superfund and Hazardous Waste Site Clean-ups are Public Health Programs We believe strongly that the underlying purpose of Superfund is to prevent disease and disability due to toxic exposures. Human exposures to toxic substances have many potential adverse health outcomes, including neurological damage, birth defects, and cancer. Identifying potential health hazards due to dangerous contaminants in the environment and cleaning up hazardous waste sites are just as important in protecting public health as are such traditional measures as vaccinating children to prevent polio or diphtheria, or requiring safe food handling to prevent outbreaks of salmonella or E. coli. Public health involvement in Superfund site assessment and remediation has been built into the program from the beginning, primarily through the activities of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. However, the full potential of public health approaches to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Superfund has never been fully realized. To achieve this potential, the Superfund program must require early, strong, and full involvement of public health agencies and experts at hazardous waste sites. 2. Public Health Participation is Essential in Addressing Hazardous Waste Sites Public health experts, federal, state and local, must be engaged actively at the earliest stages of the Superfund process. HR 1300 recognizes this by requiring consultation with local public health officials at the time of preliminary assessment and site inspection and regularly thereafter. When a hazardous waste site is identified in a community, everybody has questions and concerns. Responding to these requires collection of the proper kinds of data using the most appropriate scientific methods and practices. Public health assessments, using the best epidemiologic and toxicological methods and data available, serve two important purposes. First, they alert all the parties to the key public health problems. Second, they can mitigate concerns by determining that a site does not pose health risks. When a hazardous waste site is identified, there is a window of opportunity for establishing baseline health and exposure data, understanding potential health risks, and developing plans for remediation that specifically address those health risks. This window closes before public health expertise has been tapped. Early involvement by public health experts assures that public health needs will determine the priorities for clean-up. HR 1300 strongly encourages the completion of public health assessments prior to the choice of remedial activities. We support this, and believe that early public health involvement will improve the ultimate result of Superfund site clean-ups in achieving and documenting better public health outcomes and sustaining healthy communities. Public health involvement should extend to off-site activities as well. For instance, testing of air, water, and soil in nearby locations is necessary to identify more precisely which neighbors of a hazardous waste site may be subjected to toxic exposures, and which are not. This is also important in addressing the interactive effects of exposures to a community through air, water, and soil contamination, whether or not all such contamination is attributable to the site itself. HR 1300 recognizes this fact and provides for strategies to obtain both on-site and off-site characterization data. |