Epa Adds Six Hazardous Sites To Superfund List

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is adding six new hazardous waste sites that pose risks to human health and the environment to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites, bringing the total number of sites on the list to 1,244. EPA is also proposing to add four other sites to the list.

Contaminants found at these final and proposed sites include benzene, carbon tetrachloride, chromium, creosote, mercury, N-nitrosodimethylamine (NMDA), carcinogenic polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds, toluene, trichloroethene (TCE), tetrachloroethene (PCE), vinyl chloride, and other volatile organic compounds.

The six sites added to the Superfund List are:
* Klau/Buena Vista Mine, San Luis Obispo, California

* Alternate Energy Resources, Augusta, Georgia

* Olin Chemical, Wilmington, Massachusetts

* Parkview Well, Grand Island, Nebraska

* West Highway 6 & Highway 281, Hastings, Nebraska

* Quendall Terminals, Renton, Washington

Proposed for the Superfund List are:
* ASARCO Taylor Springs, Taylor Springs, Illinois

* Sherwin-Williams/Hilliards Creek, Gibbsboro, New Jersey

* Matteo & Sons Inc., Thorofare, New Jersey

* Maunabo Urbano Public Wells, Maunabo, Puerto Rico

With the proposal of the four new sites, there are 59 proposed sites awaiting final agency action – 54 in the general Superfund section and five in the federal facilities section. Altogether, there are 1,303 final and proposed sites.

In addition, EPA is proposing to restore the Ringwood Mines/Landfill site in New Jersey to the National Priorities List. The site was originally added to the list September 1, 1983 and deleted November 2, 1994.

In January, attorneys representing the Ramapough Mountain Tribe and other residents of Ringwood, New Jersey filed a lawsuit against Ford Motor Company and other defendants for property damage and personal injuries allegedly caused by the improper disposal of toxic waste from Fords former Mahwah, New Jersey automobile plant at the Ringwood Mines/Landfill site.

Also, the EPA is withdrawing the proposal to add the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant in De Soto, Kansas, to the list.

With all Superfund sites, EPA tries to identify and locate the parties potentially responsible for the contamination. Historically, through EPA’s enforcement program, approximately 70 percent of Superfund cleanups have been performed by the parties responsible for site contamination.

For the newly listed sites without viable potentially responsible parties, EPA will investigate the full extent of the contamination before starting cleanup at the site, so it may be several years before cleanup funding is required for these sites.

Sites may be placed on the Superfund List in several ways. If a site is ranked particularly hazardous according to EPA’s Hazard Ranking System. States or territories can each designate one top priority site.

Or a site can be placed on the Superfund List if it meets all three of the following requirements:

* The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry of the U.S. Public Health Service has issued a health advisory that recommends removing people from the site;

* EPA determines the site poses a significant threat to public health;

* EPA anticipates it will be more cost-effective to use its remedial authority than to use its emergency removal authority to respond to the site.
Provided by the Environmental News Service.