Superfund List Adds Seven Hazardous Waste Sites

The EPA has added seven hazardous waste sites that pose risks to people’s health and the environment to the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites.

The agency is also proposing to add another five sites to the list.

The following seven sites have been added to the NPL:

• MacMillan Ring Free Oil (former oil refinery) in Norphlet, Ark.;
• Keddy Mill (former sawmill, grist and wool carding mill) in Windham, Maine;
• PCE Southeast Contamination (ground water plume) in York, Neb.;
• PCE/TCE Northeast Contamination (ground water plume) in York, Neb.;
• Unimatic Manufacturing Corporation (former chemical manufacturer) in Fairfield, N.J.;
• Wolff-Alport Chemical Company (former metal extraction facility) in Ridgewood, N.Y.; and
• Walker Machine Products (former machine screw products manufacturer) in Collierville, Tenn.

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

• Colorado Smelter (former smelter) in Pueblo, Colo.;
• North Shore Drive (ground water plume) in Elkhart, Ind.;
• Delta Shipyard (former boat cleaning and repair) in Houma, La.;
• Baghurst Drive (ground water plume) in Harleysville, Pa.; and
• Jard Company (former capacitor manufacturer) in Bennington, Vt.

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the law establishing the Superfund program, requires the EPA to update the NPL at least annually and clean up hazardous waste sites with the goal of returning them to communities for productive use.

Since 1983, the EPA has listed 1,701 sites on the NPL. At 1,158 or 68 percent of NPL sites, all cleanup remedies are in place. About 662 or 39 percent of NPL sites have all necessary long-term protections in place, which means EPA considers the sites protective for redevelopment or reuse.

At one recently removed site, Oklahoma's East Oak Landfill, Waste Management is now making diesel fuel and wax from captured gas.