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News Releases from Region 07

EPA Updates National Priorities List, Advances Agency’s Commitment to Expedite Cleanup Across the Country

One Region 7 site is proposed for the NPL: Sporlan Valve Plant #1 in Washington, Missouri

09/11/2018
Contact Information: 
Ben Washburn (washburn.ben@epa.gov)
913-551-7364

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Lenexa, Kan., Sept. 11, 2018) - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its commitment to clean up five hazardous waste sites by adding them to the Superfund Program’s National Priorities List (NPL) and proposing to add another six sites to the NPL. These additions represent commitments from the Agency to advance cleanup to protect communities across the country.  In EPA Region 7, one site is proposed for the NPL: Sporlan Valve Plant #1 in Washington, Missouri.

“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.”

The following sites are being added to the NPL:

  • Rockwell International Wheel & Trim in Grenada, Mississippi
  • Southside Chattanooga Lead in Chattanooga, Tennessee
  • Broadway Street Corridor Groundwater Contamination in Anderson, Indiana
  • Donnelsville Contaminated Aquifer in Donnelsville, Ohio
  • Delfasco Forge in Grand Prairie, Texas
The following sites are being proposed for addition to the NPL:
  • Magna Metals in Cortlandt Manor, New York
  • Shaffer Equipment/Arbuckle Creek Area in Minden, West Virginia
  • Cliff Drive Groundwater Contamination in Logansport, Indiana
  • McLouth Steel Corp in Trenton, Michigan
  • Sporlan Valve Plant #1 in Washington, Missouri
  • Copper Bluff Mine in Hoopa, California
For the first time, EPA is listing sites on the NPL solely for subsurface intrusion, or intrusion of contaminants into occupied spaces. These sites, Rockwell International Wheel & Trim in Grenada, Mississippi, and Delfasco Forge in Grand Prairie, Texas, were not previously eligible for the NPL. Now, with the recent addition of subsurface intrusion to EPA’s system for assessing sites for the NPL, Rockwell and Delfasco became eligible for inclusion.
 
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 two 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 EPA 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 show 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.
 

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