EPA Adds 12 and Proposes Six Sites to Superfund’s National Priorities List

Debris on a cliff at the Nelson Tunnel/Commodore Waste Rock site in Creede, Colorado

(Washington, D.C. – March 19, 2008) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is adding 12 new hazardous waste sites that pose risks to human health and the environment to the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites. To date, there have been 1,581 sites listed to the NPL. Of these sites, 324 sites have been deleted resulting in 1,257 sites currently on the NPL. EPA is also proposing to add six other sites to the list.

Contaminants found at these final and proposed sites include, but are not limited to, arsenic, barium, carbon tetrachloride, chromium, copper, dichloroethene, dioxins, lead, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans, tetrachloroethene (PCE), trichloroethane, trichloroethene (TCE), vinyl chloride, and zinc.

With the proposal of the six new sites, there are 60 proposed sites awaiting final agency action: 55 in the general Superfund section and five in the federal facilities section. Altogether, there are 1,317 final and proposed sites.

With all Superfund sites, EPA tries to identify and locate the parties potentially responsible for the contamination. For the newly listed sites without viable potentially responsible parties, EPA will investigate the full extent of the contamination before starting significant cleanup at the site. Therefore, it may be several years before significant cleanup funding is required for these sites.

Sites may be placed on the list through various mechanisms:

Numeric ranking established by EPA’s Hazard Ranking System.
Designation by states or territories of one top-priority site.
Meeting all three of the following requirements:
- The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) 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; and
- 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.

For Federal Register notices and supporting documents for these final and proposed sites, please visit EPA's New Proposed and New Final NPL Sites page.

The following 12 sites have been added to the National Priorities List:

The following six sites have been proposed to the National Priorities List:

Iron King Mine – Humboldt Smelter (Dewey-Humboldt, AZ)
Nelson Tunnel/Commodore Waste Rock (Creede, CO)
Flash Cleaners (Pompano Beach, FL)
Aberdeen Contaminated Ground Water (Aberdeen, NC)
Attebury Grain Storage Facility (Happy, TX)
Old Esco Manufacturing (Greenville, TX)

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EPA Adds 12 and Proposes Six Sites to Superfund’s National Priorities List

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