The Environmental Protection Agency is adding five new hazardous waste sites to a federal list of sites that could pose risks to public health and is considering adding eight more.
The EPA added sites in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, New Jersey and New Mexico to the federal Superfund program’s National Priorities List, the agency announced Wednesday. Additional sites in California, Colorado, Indiana, New York, Ohio, Puerto Rico, Texas and West Virginia are under consideration.
Superfund sites are contaminated areas that require a long-term project to clean up. No site can be added to the program unless it is put on the National Priorities List.
“Cleaning up hazardous waste sites is vitally important to the health of America’s communities,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management. “Our goal is to give communities the best opportunity for productive use of a site after it is cleaned up.”
The sites that were added to the list Wednesday are a former zinc smelter in Fairmont City, Ill., a former dry cleaner in Atlantic, Iowa, a former gas plant manufacturer in Norfolk, Neb., a former pesticides manufacturer in Vineland, N.J., and a groundwater plume in Roswell, N.M.
Among the proposed sites are former hard rock mining areas in Fairmont City, Calif., and San Juan County, Colo., a groundwater plume in Indianapolis, an industrial site in Dutchess County, N.Y., a former fire and heavy duty truck molding manufacturer in Riverside, Ohio, groundwater contamination in Dorado, Puerto Rico, a former cleaning products manufacturer in Live Oak, Texas, and a former glass and zinc manufacturer in Clarksburg, W. Va.
To get on the list, states, tribes or local communities must ask the EPA to add the site. A public comment period follows and the EPA and local communities work together to figure out what the hazardous waste site could be redeveloped into.
Stanislaus touted that adding the sites to the National Priorities List would mean more jobs, increased property values and more tax revenue for local governments because the cleanup at toxic sites makes nearby areas more livable.
“EPA found, at the end of fiscal year 2015, that approximately 3,900 businesses had ongoing operations that were generating annual sales of more than $29 billion and employing more than 108,000 people,” he said.
