Nine New Hazardous Waste Sites Added To Superfund
Nine more hazardous waste sites have been added to the Superfund National Priorities List, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on Wednesday.
One is an inactive lead mine in Missouri where lead, cadmium, zinc, and arsenic have been detected in surface water bodies downstream from the site and pose a threat to recreational fisheries and wetlands in the area.
Another is a ground water plume contaminated with chlorinated solvents in the city of Grants, Cibola County, New Mexico. The site is located in a mixed commercial/residential area. Most people within four miles of the site rely on municipal water systems, and five municipal wells are located within that four mile radius.
The Picayune Wood Treating facility in Picayune, Mississippi where soil, surface water and groundwater are all contaminated with arsenic, chromium, copper, lead, cyanide, benzene, methylisobutylketone, toluene, ethylbenzene, total xylenes, styrene, several polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and phenols as well as several dioxin and furan compounds, EPA tests have shown.
The Picayune site is in a residential, commercial, and industrial area with a public park, a daycare center, elementary school and residences in the immediate vicinity.
The nine sites were proposed in the Federal Register on March 8 for a 60 day public comment period. The proposals received only comments in favor of a Superfund listing.
The nine sites being added are:
* Jacobsville Neighborhood Soil Contamination, Evansville, Indiana
* Annapolis Lead Mine, Annapolis, Missouri
* Picayune Wood Treating, Picayune, Mississippi
* Grants Chlorinated Solvents Plume, Grants, New Mexico
* Diaz Chemical Corporation, Holley, New York
* Peninsula Boulevard Ground Water Plume, Hewlett, New York
* Ryeland Road Arsenic, Heidelberg Township, Pennsylvania
* Cidra Ground Water Contamination, Cidra, Puerto Rico
* Pike Hill Copper Mine, Corinth, Vermont
Additionally, EPA has proposed 56 sites now waiting final agency action – 50 non-federal sites and six federal facility sites. If these sites are eventually funded, EPA will work with states, tribes, local communities and other partners in identifying land reuse options and opportunities at these sites.
Nationally, more than 70 percent of all Superfund sites are cleaned up by those responsible for the pollution, the agency says. When the EPA has to fund cleanup, agency officials work to get reimbursed from polluters under the EPA cost recovery program.
Since the beginning of the Superfund program, more than $22 billion in cleanup commitments and funding have been provided by the parties responsible for toxic waste sites.
With the addition of the nine new sites, there are now 1,245 sites on the Superfund list–1,087 non-federal sites and 158 sites at federal facilities.
Provided by the Environmental News Service.