Seven Final, Five Proposed Superfund Sites Announced

Soil and Sediment contamination from the Quendall Terminals creosote and coal tar facility

A former chlorine manufacturer, a hard rock mine, a commercial grain elevator, and an electroplating facility are among the seven new sites added to the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites. The sites were selected because of their degree of risk to human health and to sensitive environments. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also proposed an additional five sites. Contaminants found at the final and proposed sites include benzene, cadmium, carbon tetrachloride, tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethene, toluene, vinyl chloride, mercury, zinc, lead, and arsenic, among others.

With the addition of these seven sites, there are now 1,245 final sites on the NPL. With the addition of the five newly proposed sites, 62 proposed sites await final Agency action: 56 in the general Superfund section and 6 in the federal facilities section. Altogether, there are 1,307 final and proposed sites on the list.

With all Superfund sites, EPA tries to identify and locate the parties potentially responsible for the contamination. Historically, on average, "Potentially Responsible Parties" (PRPs) held responsible for the contamination agree to initiate or pay for 70 percent of cleanups started each year. For the newly listed sites without viable PRPs, EPA will investigate the full extent of the contamination before starting significant construction at the site. Therefore, it may be several years before significant construction funding is required for these sites.

Sites may be placed on the NPL through various mechanisms:

Numeric ranking established by EPA's Hazard Ranking System.
Designation by states or territories of one top-priority site regardless of score.
Meeting all three 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 (available only at NPL sites) 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, go to http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/current.htm.

Final Rule No. 39, General Superfund Section

State	Site name	City/county
CO	Standard Mine	Gunnison National Forest
GA	Peach Orchard Road PCE Ground Water Plume	Augusta
NE	Garvey Elevator	Hastings
NH	Chlor-Alkali Facility (Former)	Berlin
NC	Blue Ridge Plating	Arden
PA	Jackson Ceramix	Falls Creek
TX	Sandy Beach Road Ground Water Plume*	Azle

Number of Sites Added to General Superfund Section: 7.

* The Sandy Beach Road Ground Water Plume in Azle, Texas, was proposed to the NPL under a different name. The former name was Pelican Bay Ground Water Plume (see Proposed Rule at 70 FR 21718, April 27, 2005). EPA believes the new name, Sandy Beach Road Ground Water Plume, more accurately identifies the site.

Proposed Rule No. 43, General Superfund Section

State	Site name	City/county
GA	Alternate Energy Resources	Augusta
IL	Lake Calumet Cluster	Chicago
MA	Olin Chemical	Wilmington
NE	West Highway 6 & 281	Hastings
WA	Quendall Terminals	Renton

Number of Sites Proposed to General Superfund Section: 5.

Superfund Help: Acronyms | Topics | Frequent Questions | Publications | Sitemap

OSWER Home | Superfund Home | Innovative Technologies Home

Seven Final, Five Proposed Superfund Sites Announced

Local Navigation