Superfund Chief Floats Cleanup Alternatives.

With a tight federal budget expected to continue and no immediate U.S. President George W. Bush's White House plans to seek extra dollars for hazardous waste cleanups, Superfund is ripe for change, says Thomas P. Dunne, who heads the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency office that oversees the cleanup program. Dunne has floated some ideas on how to leverage Superfund's dwindling pool of money. Partisan battles have sunk past Capitol Hill efforts to "reform" Superfund. Dunne's suggestions, contained in a December 2 speech at a Charlottesville, Virginia, conference, are not fully developed. He says EPA could stop listing new sites or not start cleanup at newly eligible sites where there is no responsible party until work in the pipeline is finished. Dunne issued a plea to put politics aside.