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Superfund's 25th Anniversary: Capturing the Past, Charting the Future
Photo History Project
Superfund Turns 25 in California
On December 11, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA or Superfund), creating the Federal government's program to clean up the nation's uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. Through the Superfund program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its partners addresses abandoned, accidentally spilled, or illegally dumped hazardous waste that pose current or future threats to human health or the environment. There is at least one Superfund site in every State (locate a Superfund site).
Congress passed the statute, but it was up to EPA to create the Superfund program. When national media brought attention to such sites as the Valley of the Drums in Kentucky and a chemical explosion in Elizabeth, New Jersey, EPA took immediate action. Drums were collected and removed. Fires were extinguished. Leaks from tanks and waste ponds were stopped.
However, responding to emergencies was not EPA's only challenge. Over the next twenty-five years, EPA developed new and innovative ways to conduct cleanups. Important research examined how contamination migrated into groundwater, and new technologies provided improved methods to treat, store, and dispose of wastes. EPA took steps to ensure that communities near hazardous sites had a strong, meaningful voice in cleanup decisions, including determining how to reuse land after a cleanup. Finally, the Superfund program pioneered methods to ensure that the parties responsible for contamination were held responsible for the cleanup as well. Since 1980, EPA's enforcement program has secured private party funding commitments of nearly $24 billion.
Over time, Superfund evolved into a strong and effective construction program. As of December 2005, construction work was complete at 966 or 62% of Superfund private and federal sites, and work was underway at an additional 422 sites. Strong partnerships ensure that Federal properties are addressed and that communities are part of the process. Superfund's emergency response program has taken action at thousands of sites to reduce the immediate threats to human health, including substantial roles in the World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks, the 2001 Anthrax Attacks, the Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster, and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Through Superfund's Redevelopment Initiative, today Superfund sites are model airplane fields, airports, major department stores, soccer fields, golf courses, wildlife refuges and much more.
However, work remains. Even today, 1 in 4 Americans live within 4 miles of a Superfund site. Each year, Superfund assesses potentially hazardous waste sites and finds previously unknown chemicals and wastes that require research and new technologies to properly address potential threats to human health and the environment.
EPA undertook two activities to commemorate Superfund's 25th Anniversary. The Photo History Project, visually captured the people and places of Superfund, the human and environmental impacts of Superfund sites, and the changes in communities resulting from site cleanups. The photos, two from each EPA Region, were selected from 300 submissions and are on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC through the end of January 2006.
EPA also developed the 25th Anniversary Oral History Project. The project will serve as a permanent, accessible record of interviews with almost 40 people who have shaped the Superfund program, including crafters of the legislation, community members who live near hazardous waste sites, people who implemented the program at the Federal, State, Tribal and local levels, and industry representatives. The transcripts from these interviews will be available on Superfund's Web site once they are all completed.
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