News Releases from Region 05
EPA Adds Donnelsville Contaminated Aquifer Site in Ohio to the Superfund National Priorities List
For Immediate Release: No. 18-OPA050
CHICAGO (Sept. 11, 2018) — Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added the Donnelsville Contaminated Aquifer site in Ohio to the Superfund program’s National Priorities List (NPL). This addition represents the agency’s commitment to advance Superfund cleanups to protect communities across the country.
“In adding these sites to the NPL, EPA is carrying out one of our core responsibilities to the American people,” said EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “Cleaning up sites that pose risks to public health and the environment is a critical part of our mission and it provides significant health and economic benefits to communities across the country.”
“Adding this site to the NPL is the last step in the process to secure federal funding for the cleanup,” said EPA Regional Administrator Cathy Stepp. “EPA is working in close coordination with Ohio and Donnelsville to clean up groundwater contamination and ensure sustainable, safe drinking water for the community.”
U.S. EPA and Ohio EPA sampling detected elevated levels of chlorinated solvents at the Donnelsville aquifer. Since 2011, drinking water treatment systems have been installed at approximately 25 residences at the site. The specific source or source(s) of trichloroethene (TCE) and tetrachloroethene (PCE) contamination in the groundwater could not be identified.
“This will bring a permanent solution to provide sustainable, safe drinking water to the community,” said Ohio EPA Director Craig W. Butler. “Ohio EPA, U.S. EPA and local leaders worked together to develop this plan to resolve a long-standing ground water contamination problem.”
Under the Trump Administration, the Superfund program has reemerged as a priority to fulfill and strengthen EPA’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment. Since October 2017, EPA has deleted 10 full sites, and 2 partial sites from the NPL.
Background
The NPL includes the nation’s most serious uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites. The list serves as the basis for prioritizing EPA Superfund cleanup funding and enforcement actions. Only sites on the NPL are eligible to receive federal funding for long-term, permanent cleanup.
EPA initiates Superfund involvement at sites when states, tribes, or communities ask for the agency’s help, or when the agency finds contamination during its own investigations. Sites are deleted from the NPL once the agency completes all response actions and achieves all cleanup objectives. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), which established the Superfund program, requires EPA to update the NPL annually.
The Superfund program has been providing important health benefits to communities across the country for more than 35 years.
Superfund cleanups also strengthen local economies. Data collected through 2017 shows that at 487 Superfund sites in reuse, approximately 6,600 businesses are generating $43.6 billion in sales and employ 156,000 people who earned a combined income of $11.2 billion.
The NPL is one focus area of the 2017 Superfund Task Force Recommendations to improve and revitalize the Superfund program. On July 23, 2018, EPA released the Superfund Task Force 2018 Recommendations Update.
The 2018 Recommendation Update can be found here: https://www.epa.gov/superfund/superfund-task-force-recommendations-2018-update
The Superfund Task Force Recommendations can be viewed at: https://www.epa.gov/superfund/superfund-task-force-recommendations
For Federal Register notices and supporting documents for the final and proposed sites: http://www.epa.gov/superfund/current-npl-updates-new-proposed-npl-sites-and-new-npl-sites
For information about Superfund and the NPL: http://www.epa.gov/superfund
For more information about the Donnelsville site: https://www.epa.gov/superfund/donnelsville-contaminated-aquifer
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