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April 1 , 2003 The Honorable Christine Todd Whitman Dear Administrator Whitman: I am writing to you regarding the application of the Service Station Dealers Exemption (SSDE) (U.S.C. #9614) to the Superfund Act. As you know, the Superfund Act created a liability mechanism to pay for the clean-up of abandoned and contaminated sites. This includes those sites where the responsible parties cannot be located or are unable to pay for the clean up. In 1986, Congress passed the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act, which was intended to amend Superfund and give individual service station owners a specific defense against liability for the cost of cleaning these contaminated sites. When the EPA promulgated the rules for the SSDE, it created a "notch" of uncovered service stations who were in operation after the law was enacted in 1986, but who are not eligible for the SSDE defense because the EPA did not promulgate the rules until 1991. These service station owners are still being held liable even though they were operating their businesses in good faith. I urge you to make the SSDE applicable to the date of the law's enactment, instead of the date the rules were promulgated. I believe this action will provide service stations owners with the defense that was intended for them. I look forward to your reply. BARNEY FRANK |