WASHINGTON — A new bill introduced in Congress could finally put hard numbers behind a question that has lingered for decades: How many Americans are living in the shadow of toxic waste sites?
Rep. Mike Lawler introduced H.R. 7595 on Feb. 17, a measure titled the “Superfund Area Facts and Exposure Act.” The proposal does not order cleanups, allocate new funding, or change environmental law. Instead, it directs the federal government to count.
Specifically, the bill would require the U.S. Government Accountability Office to determine the number of residential homes and public housing units located within one mile of a Superfund site listed on the National Priorities List.
That list, maintained under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, identifies some of the most contaminated hazardous waste sites in the country — places deemed serious enough to warrant long-term federal cleanup.
If the bill becomes law, the Comptroller General would have six months to deliver a report to Congress. That report would break down, site by site, how many homes sit within a one-mile radius — and how many of them are public housing units as defined under the U.S. Housing Act of 1937.
On its face, the legislation is simple: gather the data.
But the implications could be far more significant.
Superfund sites have long raised environmental justice concerns, with critics arguing that lower-income communities often bear the brunt of industrial contamination. A federal accounting of housing proximity could sharpen that debate, particularly if it reveals concentrations of public housing near toxic sites.
Currently, Ohio has 37 sites on the federal Superfund National Priorities List. Several hazardous sites in the Scioto Valley — including the former WearEver facility and the old Allied Chemical site in Chillicothe — qualified for consideration under the Superfund program but were never formally placed on the National Priorities List.
Bowers Landfill in Circleville, however, was an official EPA Superfund site. It was listed on the National Priorities List and later removed in 1996 after remediation efforts were completed.
The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
For now, the proposal is about facts — not policy. But once those facts are on paper, Congress may be forced to confront what they reveal.