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Earth Night

Environmental Issues--Enforcement

The Environmental League of Massachusetts strongly opposes this legislation, which would take away protections of the public interest in Massachusetts' privatized hazardous waste site cleanup program.

The commonwealth's Chapter 21E cleanup program has been an experiment in privatizing government duties - and one of the reasons it has been successful is the Board of Licensed Site Professionals. This volunteer board provides many hours of service to the commonwealth, helping to ensure that our land and water do not suffer at the hands of unscrupulous LSPs. While we understand that the Board has worked diligently over the past few years to reduce a backlog of cases, the nature of their investigations and the appeals process means that they will almost never be able to meet the time limits set out in H.591, either to clear an LSP's name or to confirm wrongdoing. Their role will become even more important as spending cuts at the Department of Environmental Protection reduce the number of 21E and brownfields site audits the agency carries out.

Indeed, if the Board cannot be given the time and resources needed to carry out proper investigations, resolve problems, and reprimand delinquent LSPs, we would argue that the privatized program can no longer work as intended, and should be abolished.

We urge you to reject this proposal.

Pamela DiBona
Vice President for Policy