News Releases from Region 06
EPA Adds Louisiana Site to National Priorities List of Superfund Sites
(DALLAS - Sept. 28, 2015) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is adding the Colonial Creosote site in Washington Parish, LA, to the National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites, a list of sites that pose risks to people's health and the environment. In a separate action, EPA also proposes to add the SBA Shipyard site in Jennings, La., to the list.
"The goal of Superfund programs is to make places safer for families to live, play, and conduct business," said Regional Administrator Ron Curry. "It's vital to communities and to EPA's mission that we restore and protect these areas by addressing this pollution."
The Colonial Creosote site, a 32-acre property in southeast Bogalusa, operated as a wood-treating facility from 1911 to 1953, with creosote used as the primary preservative. The site most recently housed Bogalusa Concrete, which operated until 2008. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) referred the site to EPA for evaluation in 2011.
Creosote contamination has been found in soil, sediment, and ground water near the site. The contamination, mainly in the form of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), have migrated from the facility to underlying groundwater, adjacent wetlands and nearby surface waters. Certain PAHs are suspected causes of cancer in humans, and have been shown to cause reproductive problems and birth defects in animals.
The SBA site, a 98-acre property in the southwest area of the Mermentau River, was used as a construction repair and maintenance facility for barges from 1965 to 1999. The barges typically serviced diesel, coal tar, creosote, asphalt and crude oil. LDEQ referred the site for listing in 2012. EPA is taking steps to prevent contamination from continuing to affect adjacent wetlands.
Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country and converts them into productive community resources by eliminating or reducing public health risks and environmental contamination.
EPA regularly works to identify companies or people responsible for the contamination at a site, and requires them to conduct or pay for the cleanup. For the newly listed sites without viable potentially responsible parties, EPA will investigate the extent of the contamination before assessing how best to treat it.
This year marks the 35th anniversary of the enactment of the Comprehensive Environmental, Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the law establishing the Superfund program. Superfund's passage was a giant step forward in cleaning up legacy industrial waste sites to help ensure human health and environmental protection. The Superfund law gives EPA the authority to clean up releases of hazardous substances and directs EPA to update the NPL at least annually. The NPL contains the nation's most serious uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites. The list serves as the basis for prioritizing both enforcement actions and long-term EPA Superfund cleanup funding; only sites on the NPL are eligible for such funding.
Federal Register notices and supporting documents for the final and proposed sites:
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/current.htm
Information about how a site is listed on the NPL:
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/npl_hrs.htm
Superfund sites in local communities:
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/index.htm
More information about the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the law establishing the Superfund program, can be found at:
http://epa.gov/superfund/policy/cercla.htm
More about activities in EPA Region 6 is available at http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/region6.html