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Help for Cleanups in My Community
Index
- Background
- Programs Included in Cleanups in My Community
- Select Sites based on Cleanup Status
- Select Sites based on Geography
Background
Accidents, spills, leaks, and past improper disposal and handling of hazardous materials and wastes have resulted in tens of thousands of sites across our country that have contaminated our land, water (groundwater and surface water), and air (indoor and outdoor). EPA and its state and territorial partners have developed a variety of cleanup programs to assess and, where necessary, clean up these contaminated sites. Cleanups may be done by EPA, other federal agencies, states or municipalities, or the company or party responsible for the contamination.
Scope of Sites Included in Cleanups in My Community
Cleanups in My Community is intended to provide information about sites that are being cleaned up, or have been cleaned up, in your community or anywhere in the United States. Currently, the search function only works for sites that are cleaned up under EPA programs that involve reporting information back to EPA:
- Superfund: Superfund sites on the National Priority List (NPL), are proposed for the NPL and have been deleted from the NPL.
- RCRA Corrective Action: Sites cleaned up under the Corrective Action program of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
- Federal Facilities: Federal Facility sites that are Superfund and/or RCRA Corrective Action sites
- Brownfields: Brownfields Properties which may report information under federal grants
We will work with our local, state and other federal partners to provide additional sites in the search function (such as local or state Brownfields sites, and leaking underground storage tanks) in the future. Meanwhile, links are provided to some additional resources to help you access local, state and other federal information about cleanup sites that are not reported back to EPA and are not in Cleanups in My Community. These links are available at the bottom of the search page for Cleanups in My Community.
EPA is working with state, local and federal partners to provide more integrated access to that information as technology and resources allow.
Selecting Sites in Cleanups in My Community
To view sites, you need to select the types of sites you want to see (step 1) and what geography you want covered (step 2). Sites can then be plotted on a map or displayed on a list. You can see a more detailed site profile by clicking on the site displayed on the map or list.
EPA is working to improve these site profiles, adding land use control and environmental indicator information and making them easier to understand and interpret.
Step 1: Select Sites based on Cleanup Program or Status
Each cleanup program is founded on different legislation with different reporting and tracking requirements. Consequently, the categories used, and the information available, for each program is a little different.
To select sites, simply click on the option in the list box. You may select to see all sites (All), all sites within a specific program (Superfund, RCRA Corrective Action, Federal Facilities, or Brownfields), or you may pick any combination of categories listed by clicking on each one you want to include while holding down the Control (CTRL) key on your keyboard.
Through the One Cleanup Program, EPA is working to better integrate the various cleanup programs. You can find out more about each program by clicking on each program title below.
Superfund
The Superfund program has been established to clean up the sites with the worst hazardous waste contamination nationwide. Only those currently on the National Priority List (NPL) have been included in Cleanups in My Community thus far. In Cleanups in My Community we have used the term NPList because not everyone knows what NPL means and National Priority List is too long a title for the list in the list box. (more on Superfund)
NPList
EPA maintains a National Priority List (NPL) which serves primarily informational purposes, identifying for the States and the public those sites or other releases that appear to warrant remedial (long term) actions.
- Proposed: Sites may be proposed for the NPL and then may be placed on the NPL as Final or be removed from the Proposed NPL.
- Final: Those sites placed on the NPL are called "final," and for these sites, a cleanup remedy is selected and implemented. However, it may be several years after construction of the remedy is completed before the hazardous substances are completely cleaned up or controlled in place.
- Deleted: After the cleanup process is complete, and appropriate reviews confirm the area is cleaned up or the hazards are controlled, sites can be deleted from the NPL.
Note: Hazardous substance releases that require immediate or short-term
response actions are addressed under the Emergency
Response program and are tracked centrally by the federal
government's National
Reporting Center
.
Cleanups in My Community does not yet provide direct links
to information on these types of sites.
RCRA Corrective Action
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, among other things, helps
ensure that wastes are managed in an environmentally sound manner so as
to protect human health and the environment from the potential hazards
of waste disposal. (more on RCRA) When accidents or other activities at hazardous waste
facilities lead to a release of hazardous materials, the RCRA Corrective
Action program is one program that may be used to accomplish the necessary
cleanup. In Cleanups in My Community, you can map or list RCRA Corrective
Action sites that are currently undergoing corrective action, sites for
which a remedy has been selected, sites for which construction has been
completed, and sites where the corrective action cleanup is complete. (more on RCRA
Corrective Action)
Note: RCRA sites which are not undergoing corrective action are not in Cleanups in My Community because they are not cleanup sites. The complete set of RCRA facilities can be accessed via the RCRA database.
Federal Facilities
Federal facilities are properties owned by the federal government. Federal
facility sites can be either Superfund sites or RCRA Corrective Action
sites, or both. In Cleanups in My Community, you can map or list any of these Federal Facility sites.
EPA is working to add the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) sites and other Federal Facility sites that are neither Superfund sites nor RCRA Corrective Actions sites to Cleanups in My Community. (more on Federal Facilities)
Brownfields
Brownfields are real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties takes development pressures off of undeveloped, open land, and both improves and protects the environment.
Cleanups in My Community provides information on Brownfields properties
for which information is reported back to EPA, as well as areas served
by Brownfields grant programs. (more on Brownfields) Brownfields properties may be mapped or
listed, and property profiles can be accessed from either maps or lists.
Brownfields areas served can be shown as shaded areas on a map of a city,
county or ZIP Code area. For more detailed maps of what types of grants
are involved in each geographic area, we recommend you see Brownfields’
EnviroMapper.
Step 2: Select Sites based on Geography
You can search for sites in Cleanups in My Community based on the following types of geography:
- National – You may map or list sites for the whole country. Mapping or getting a listing for the whole country can be slow, so you will want to limit the types of sites in your search based on the categories above.
- State or groups of states – Highlight a single state, or hold down the Control (CTRL) key to select more than one state.
- County, City or ZIP – Enter the name of the county or city of the ZIP Code area of interest. Be sure to specify the state in which the county, City or ZIP exists.
- EPA Region – Select one of EPA’s 10 regions.
- Watershed – You can select the hydrological unit code, catalog unit name or subregion name. Catalog units are also called watersheds. An explanation of these terms is provided on the USGS HUC page. Listings of these geographic areas are also available at the USGS website.
- Latitude/Longitude – When you specify a latitude and longitude, the map or listing of sites will be all those within a certain radius of that point.