Ten Superfund sites have been added to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Priorities List (NPL), and the agency is proposing 15 more additions.
The additions to the NPL, the list of national priorities among the known or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants, take the number of Superfund sites to 1,290.
The EPA says the sites contain harmful contaminants including arsenic, asbestos, barium, cadmium, chromium, copper, creosote, dichloroethene (DCE), dioxins, lead, mercury, pentachlorophenol (PCP), polynuclear aromatic hydrcarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), tetrachloroethene (PCE), trichloroethane (TCA), trichloroethene (TCE), and zinc.
Since Superfund’s introduction by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), 1,637 sites have been listed on the NPL, and 347 of these have been deleted. Another 66 proposed sites are awaiting final agency action.
The sites added to the list yesterday are located in eight states and Puerto Rico (see chart).They include locations used for smelting, fertilizer manufacture, mining and other industrial operations, as well as an illegal dump and several sites where the cause of pollution is unknown.
The EPA identified a number of companies known to have had operations at the sites, though all of the companies have since ceased those operations or gone out of business. The NPL does not itself assign liability to any party or to the owner of any specific property.
With all Superfund sites, the agency tries to locate the parties responsible for contamination. When there are no viable potential responsible parties, the EPA will investigate the full extent of the contamination before starting significant cleanup at the site.
Superfund sites are eligible for federal investigation and cleanup funds while the EPA seeks to identify parties responsible for the pollution.
The 15 sites proposed yesterday for Superfund inclusion are:
