PETROLIA - Construction of the public water system is to begin soon in the Petroleum Valley.

However, testing and cleanup of contaminated sites throughout the valley has stopped. That's because the fund that pays for the cleanup is broke.

So while more than 800 homes and businesses sometime soon will have a clean water source after contaminated groundwater forced them for several years to use bottled water, the source of the contaminated water won't be cleaned up without the help of the Legislature and the governor.

The lack of money also means other hazardous waste cleanup sites in Pennsylvania are in the same predicament.

The state's Superfund program is funded through the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act, which was established in 1998 and administered through the state Department of Environmental Protection.Superfund uses federal money to pay for cleanup while attorneys sue polluters for creating the hazardous sites. If money is collected, it is applied to the cleanup costs.The hazardous sites act works the same way. A $55 million program annually, the DEP has relied on the Capital Stock and Franchise Taxes to pay for cleanups before money is collected from companies and individuals, or if no money is collected in the case of abandoned property and defunct businesses. These taxes are paid by corporations with capital stock, other stock organizations and trusts. The Legislature approved phasing out the taxes in 2002.Kurt Knaus, DEP press secretary, said if nothing is done to find a new funding source, even with all the cleanup projects shut down, the hazardous sites act will be $14 million in the hole by the end of the 2004-05 fiscal year on June 30."We have already stopped or triaged most of the cleanups until more money can be found," Knaus said.

Gov. Ed Rendell and state Sen. Mary Jo White, R-21st, have introduced ways to generate money for hazardous site cleanup.White's Senate Bill 149 was approved by the state Senate on Wednesday and sent to the House, which will take up the measure after the Legislature's budgetary debate sometime in mid-March.White's bill would move$36 millionof the money generated by the capital stock and franchise tax from the state's general fund to the hazardous sites act fund."This would be a quick fix, a way to get money into the fund to get cleanup moving again and give the Legislature time to find a new revenue source for the fund," White spokesman Patrick Henderson said.Rendell's plan has been introduced as part of his 2005-06 budget and named Growing Green II, which calls for the state to take out an $800 million bond issue that would pay for a myriad of environmental programs.As part of the plan, tipping, or commercial garbage disposal fees, and residual waste fees, that are imposed on industrial waste and processes, would be increased.Knaus said while these fees would be increased to pay the debt service on the 20-year bond issue, the tipping fee is expected to generate more money annually than will be needed just for the bond repayment."It is estimated that $29 million from this fee could be dedicated to HSCA," Knaus said.He added an expansion of the Toxic Release Inventory fee program, or money companies pay to the state for chemical and other toxic releases, would generate another $20 million for this site cleanup act.The balance of the act expenses would come from the money recouped from polluters.State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-12th, said while he supports the cleanup program, he does not support "increasing the tax burden on businesses. The governor has said that he has saved enough money through administrative reviews in his office that we should be able to pay for programs without increasing the tax burden."Metcalfe said he has not had time to study White's plan, but is concerned it would extend the life of a tax the Legislature is trying to eliminate.Rendell's bond-issue must be approved by the Legislature by March 14 to be placed on the primary ballot in May. State residents would then vote on the issue.

Groundwater wells in the Petroleum Valley, from Bruin through Fairview Township, are contaminated with several substances that the state Department of Environmental Protection links to hazardous waste dumpsites in the area.In March 2002, the DEP enacted the state's Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act, the state's Superfund act, and is holding at least two Petrolia companies responsible for the contamination, Beazer East Inc., and Crompton Corp. Both the federal and state acts pay for the cleanup of hazardous waste sites and then attempt to collect money for the cleanup from the responsible companies.Beazer East, based in Pittsburgh, took over one of Petrolia's original petroleum-product companies, the Koppers Co., in 1988. Beazer then sold the Petrolia plant to Indspec, but retained the legal responsibility for Koppers' environmental legacy.The Connecticut-based Crompton Co. bought Witco in September 1999, including its plant in Petrolia.Neither Indspec, now owned by Occidental Chemical, nor Penreco in Karns City have been implicated in the contamination situation.The DEP, other organizations and grassroots groups claim the contamination stems from dumping that started in the 1950s and continued into the 1970s, when Francis Spitzer was hired by Koppers and Witco to dispose of waste from the plant. Spitzer is deceased.While he was not the only person to dump industrial waste in the area, Spitzer was the most prolific, according to DEP records.Spitzer dumped the waste, that included resorcinol, which is an industrial adhesive, and a number of organic and inorganic chemicals used in the manufacturing of resorcinol, including: sulfate, sulfite, sodium, benzene, ethyl ether and various sulfonic acids, into strip mine cuts.Resorcinol was produced by Koppers and sold to other companies for use in products ranging from cosmetics and petroleum jelly to tires. Once resorcinol and sulfonic acids are in a water supply, there is no way to remove them, according to the DEP.The DEP has identified at least 24 potential dumpsites, including two in Armstrong County.More than 800 homes and businesses in the Petroleum Valley are receiving bottled water paid for by the state and Beazer East.In November 2002, the Petroleum Valley Regional Water Authority was formed to oversee the construction and operation of a public water system for the affected area, referred to by the DEP as the Bear Creek Chemical Site. Information about the site and DEP updates are available online at www.bearcreekpa.com.In 2003, both Beazer and Crompton settled with the DEP, with Beazer paying $18.1 million and Crompton paying $4.5 million. This money is being used by the DEP to pay for the public water system.