The Nation : Conferees OK Superfund

House and Senate negotiators, struggling for months over a compromise plan to extend the Superfund toxic-waste cleanup program, approved legislation to extend it for five years with a budget of $8.5 billion. Their plan, hailed by environmental groups, proposes taxing the petrochemical industry for half the money, with an additional $2 billion coming from other U.S. manufacturers and balance from taxpayers and other sources. The conferees proposed requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to initiate 375 cleanup projects and extending the statute of limitations for lawsuits by people exposed to environmental diseases.