Velma M. Smith

Superfund is a federal program that began in 1980 to clean up hazardous waste sites in the United States. In the following viewpoint, Velma M. Smith argues that although the Environmental Protection Agency—the organization responsible for overseeing the Superfund program—is slow to move hazardous waste dumps off the list of contaminated sites, it does a better job of cleaning up the sites than the states would do. The federal government should continue to control Superfund, she maintains, because lax enforcement of pollution laws by the states led to the creation of many of the sites that must now be cleaned up. Smith is the executive director of Friends of the Earth, an international environmental advocacy group.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Smith, what is the Superfund...