EPA Adds to Superfund's National Priorities List

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is adding five hazardous waste sites that pose risks to human health and the environment to the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites. In addition, the agency is proposing to add three additional sites to the list. The Superfund program, a federal program established by Congress in 1980, investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country and converts them into productive local resources by eliminating or reducing health risks and environmental contamination associated with hazardous waste sites.

Recent academic research, from the study Superfund Cleanups and Infant Health, demonstrated that investment in Superfund cleanups reduces the incidence of congenital abnormalities for those living within 5,000 meters (or 5,468 yards) of a site. Another study conducted by researchers at Duke and Pittsburgh Universities, concluded that making a site final on the NPL may increase housing prices by signaling that a site has been placed on the path towards remediation. Furthermore, the study found that once a site has all cleanup remedies in place, nearby properties have a significant increase in property values as compared to pre-NPL proposal values.

The following five sites have been added to the NPL:

• Indiana - North Shore Drive (ground water plume) in Elkhart, Ind.;
• Louisiana - Delta Shipyard (former boat cleaning and repair) in Houma, La.;
• New Jersey - Pierson’s Creek (chemical manufacturer) in Newark, N.J.;
• Pennsylvania - Baghurst Drive (ground water plume) in Harleysville, Pa.; and
• Vermont - Jard Company, Inc. (former capacitor manufacturer) in Bennington, Vt.

The following three sites have been proposed for addition to the NPL:

• Alabama - 35th Avenue (residential soil contamination) in Birmingham, Ala.;
• Indiana - Kokomo Contaminated Ground Water Plume (ground water plume) in Kokomo, Ind.; and
• Michigan - DSC McLouth Steel Gibraltar Plant (steel finishing operation) in Gibraltar, Mich.

The sites have characteristics and conditions that vary in terms of size, complexity and when the contamination occurred, with some sites involving recent contamination, among other factors. But as with all NPL sites, EPA first works to identify companies or people responsible for the contamination at a site, and requires them to conduct or pay for the cleanup. For the newly listed sites without viable potentially responsible parties, EPA will investigate the full extent of the contamination before starting substantial cleanup at the site.

Source: EPA