WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency plans to step up efforts to get the companies who dumped toxic waste at New Jersey's Superfund sites to pay to clean them up, administrator Scott Pruitt said.

Pruitt on Monday blamed a lack of urgency, not a lack of funding, for the lack of progress in cleaning up the sites. New Jersey has 114 designated Superfund sites, the most in the nation, including three of Pruitt's 21 highest-priority locations.

"I'm going to get accountability with whomever it is on these Superfund sites and we will use every means of enforcement to do so," Pruitt told a group of Washington-based reporters from local news outlets, including NJ Advance Media. "I don't think we've done it as well as we should have historically and we're going to do better going forward."

While President Donald Trump has proposed cutting EPA's budget, Pruitt said the agency will have the money it needs by ensuring that the companies responsible for the contamination clean it up.

"Most of our sites across the country have a responsible party," Pruitt said. "We have very few orphan sites."

The three high-priority sites in New Jersey, again more than any other state, are in Bridgewater, Bergen County and Newark.

"I don't think we've been as aggressive in using our strength and our authority to get accountability at some of these sites and, moreover, to get it done timely," Pruitt said. "The New Jersey sites, we have several of those and we're going to work hard and diligently to get accountability into those areas."

Environmentalists, though, said they're concerned that the EPA won't really force companies to pay to clean up the sites.

"Will he go after them sue them and compel them to clean, or will be just do clean up on paper and just get them off the list," said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club. "We think he wants to take them off the list without having the sites cleaned up."

Tittel, who said Pruitt is undercounting the orphan sites, said companies responsible for the pollution fight EPA's efforts to make them pay, and it remains to be seen what the agency will do to force them to open their wallets.

"The responsible parties drag their feet because they don't want to spend a lot of money," Tittel said. "The question becomes: What will they do to make them spend their money?"

The company responsible for some of New Jersey's Superfund sites is Dow Chemical. Dow's senior attorney, Peter Wright, has been nominated to run the EPA Office of Land and Emergency Management, the agency the oversees Superfund cleanups.

Pruitt said that career employees are responsible for determining whether an EPA official must recuse himself from particular projects.

The administrator also called for renewed efforts to replace pipes that are leaching lead into water supplies. A report last year said 300 schools in 95 New Jersey districts had fountains with lead exceeding federal standards.

Pruitt said states and localities, with some federal help, need to borrow money for repairs. Pruitt said Trump's proposed infrastructure plan, which includes $200 billion in federal funds, could supply some financial assistance, though the plan caps the U.S. share at 20 percent.

"It's going to require investment in infrastructure," Pruitt said. "We know what needs to be done. We need to replace those service lines, corrosion control measures. This is infrsturcture at its core. There needs to be an investment made by these states and cities across the country."

The cost of replacing all those lines now leaching lead is $40 billion to $45 billion over 10 years, Pruitt said.

"We can truly eradicate lead from our drinking water if we want to invest that kind of money," he said. "It's a clear and present danger to our citizens and we need to act urgently to address it."

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.