While the Chlorine Institute (CI) understands and supports the need to address our nation’s long neglected infrastructure, we are concerned about one of the proposed funding mechanisms. In the proposal under consideration is a reinstatement of the Superfund Tax. On July 17th CI raised its concerns to key senators.
The proposal would not only reimpose the tax but would, in fact, do so at double its previous level. If this occurs, the tax would impose significant hardship on the nation’s chemical industry, which employs 850,0000 workers, and on end users, which include many struggling water utilities. This hardship is compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, and CI believes the real-world effects of the tax would run counter to the goals Congress seeks to achieve in imposing it—by harming local water utilities and chlorine manufacturers, which are both still recovering from the impact of the pandemic.
The tax would redirect funds badly needed by manufacturers to replace aging equipment required to maintain production and would result in prolonging the current chlorine supply shortage. Its impact on water utilities and end users has the potential to jeopardize water treatment, thereby endangering the drinking water supply, and to limit the cleaning supplies that healthcare facilities rely on. CI expects that this tax will have a ripple effect, harming producers and end-users alike, and stands in strong opposition to its reinstatement.