During a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing last week, Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) questioned John Busterud, nominee to be Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste of the Environmental Protection Agency, about Superfund cleanups.
01:40And as of now, there are over 1,300 sites on the Superfund's national priorities list.
01:46Delaware has 17 sites spread across our state.
01:49Given your commitment to putting public health and the environment at the center of your work
01:54and the limited resources for a very complex program, how will you prioritize the completion of Superfund projects under your leadership?
02:04Well, Senator, thank you.
02:06I am committed to protecting human health and the environment, as I told your staff during the visit.
02:13I am going to make a priority in enhancing and improving the pace and efficiency of our Superfund cleanups.
02:21And really, there are two essential components there.
02:25One is a suite of process improvements we can make.
02:29There's opportunities for that.
02:30I spoke with Senator Ricketts in his office yesterday about that very issue, providing enhanced project management tools to the regions
02:39so that they can explore ways in which we can take phases of the remedial investigations and move them in parallel rather than in sequence.
02:49And there's also great opportunities for using AI in producing reports and not necessarily spending time drafting documents, you know, ab initio, if you will.
03:02But I want to say, too, in addition to those enhancements, I want to acknowledge to this committee that there's a human element to Superfund.
03:11Superfund affects children, families, communities, tribes, businesses, and their employees.
03:20And I know, if confirmed, I am going to make that a priority for me in terms of implementation.
03:28I know our dedicated career staff feels that way.
03:30And I look forward to working with them and with the communities we serve.
03:34Thank you for that commitment as well.
03:37Mr. Tell, I, as a former staffer, was impressed by Mr. Haggerty acknowledging everyone around this room.
03:48And so I'm sure they are proud and inspired.
03:52Delaware, as you probably know, is the lowest-lying state in the country, which makes the Army Corps' work critical to us as a state.
04:01And affordability criteria and the high federal cost share are critical to helping our local communities, like those in my state, mitigate disaster risk.
04:12This approach has been essential to funding beach nourishment and restoration projects across the Delaware Bay beach communities.
04:20And that really gets inland as well.
04:23Mr. Tell, if confirmed, do you commit to following affordability criteria and including a high federal cost share in order to protect local communities?
04:34Senator Blunt, Rochester, thank you for your comments.
04:37You raise a very important issue.
04:38And part of the reason that I'm so honored to have been nominated for this position is because the Corps of Engineers mission reaches into the smallest communities in America and some of the biggest cities and has an impact on all of them in a very real way.
04:52And oftentimes it's reaching to the small communities, in many cases economically disadvantaged communities over the course of history, along the Mississippi River, along the coast, along the tributaries.
05:03These communities may not have the capacity that the larger communities have.
05:10And that's why it's incumbent upon the Corps, as it works for these communities, which are very important, to provide technical assistance along the way.
05:18And where necessary, tailor the cost share to meet the community's needs as appropriate and, of course, with care for the federal taxpayer as well.
05:25Thank you, Senator.
05:27I have a lot of additional questions on Brownfields, reconnecting communities, the Port of Wilmington and Dredging.
05:34But I will submit those questions for the record.
05:37I also am in a Commerce Committee hearing on FAA right now.
05:42And so I think I heard Mr. McMaster mention that your son is an air traffic controller?
