I certainly understand why it is that so many businesses have been against it.

The problem is that the phrase "polluter pays" is a simple, stinking lie.

The person who pays is whoever happens to have their hands on it when the EPA comes calling. The EPA doesn't even have to ask who the polluter is or was; the EPA doesn't give a damn if the pollution happened fifty years ago and you're the fifth person since then; if you own the property, you pay, RIGHT NOW IN FULL OR GO TO JAIL. The EPA won't even send an expert to court to testify if anyone wants to find out who really did the polluting.

The original intent of those provisions was that, in cases where the pollution happened long ago and the polluter no longer exists, somebody would be around to carry the can. Unfortunately EPA got taken over by ideologues and bureaucratic empire-builders, each happily reinforcing the anothers' efforts; the result got to the point where it would gag Congress -- a remarkable achievement -- so Superfund, which is badly needed and has some excellent results in its portfolio, has very few friends, and none with enough power to notice.