Other Cleanup Programs
EPA Superfund Program
Years ago, people were less aware of how dumping chemical wastes
might affect public health and the environment. On thousands of
properties where such practices were intensive or continuous, the
result was uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites, such
as abandoned warehouses and landfills. Citizen concern over the
extent of this problem led Congress to establish the Superfund Program
in 1980 to locate, investigate, and clean up the worst sites nationwide.
The EPA administers the Superfund program in cooperation with individual
states and tribal governments. The office that oversees management
of the program is the Office of Emergency and Remedial Response
(OERR).
EPA Office of
Underground Storage Tanks
About 716,000 underground storage tank systems (USTs) nationwide
store petroleum or hazardous substances that can harm the environment
and human health if the USTs release their stored contents. This
site will connect you with information sources that describe the
development of UST regulations and their effectiveness today in
protecting us and our environment from leaking USTs.
EPA Brownfields Brownfields are abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination. Through the Economic Redevelopment Initiative, EPA helps states, tribes, communities, and other organizations to assess existing sites, prevent further contamination, safely clean up sites, and design plans to re-use them. See also RCRA Brownfields Preventative Initiative.
EPA Technology Innovation Office
The Technology Innovation Office (TIO) advocates more effective,
less costly approaches by government and industry to assess and
clean up contaminated waste sites, soil, and groundwater. Working
with other federal agencies, states, consulting engineering firms,
responsible parties, technology developers, and the investment
community, TIO provides robust technology and market information
and works to remove policy and institutional impediments related
to the deployment of these technologies.
EPA Office of Enforcement
and Compliance Assistance - Solid and Hazardous Waste Cleanup
This site contains information related to the enforcement of waste-related
operational requirements for solid and hazardous waste facilities
and underground storage tank facilities as well as the enforcement
of site cleanup requirements for abandoned hazardous waste sites,
operating hazardous waste sites, oil pollution sites, and underground
storage tank sites.
EPA Office of Research and Development
- Subsurface Protection & Remediation Division (ADA, OK Lab)
The Subsurface Protection and Remediation Division of the National
Risk Management Research Laboratory in Ada, Oklahoma, conducts EPA-investigator
led laboratory and field research to provide the scientific basis
to support the development of strategies and technologies to protect
and restore ground and surface water quality within a watershed
perspective. The Division's research programs include basic studies
to enhance understanding of the physical, chemical, and biological
processes that control the transport of mass and energy in surface
and subsurface ecosystems through the movement of water; the impact
of these processes on surface and subsurface ecosystems; and, the
application of this process understanding to protect and restore
water quality throughout a watershed.
EPA
One Cleanup Program Initiative
A number of EPA program offices, as well as state and local governments,
contribute to the cleaning up of contaminated sites. This program,
initiated in 2003, is EPA's vision for how the different cleanup
programs at all levels of government can work together to improve
the coordination, speed, and effectiveness of cleanups. The Groundwater
Task Force is a prime example of the cross-program initiatives established
under One Cleanup.