News Releases from Headquarters›Land and Emergency Management (OLEM)

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

WASHINGTON  — Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the addition of five hazardous waste sites to the Superfund Program’s National Priorities List (NPL) and proposed to add another six sites to the NPL. These additions represent commitments from the Agency to advance Superfund cleanup to protect communities across the country.

“Adding these sites to the proposed and final National Priorities List signifies EPA’s commitment to clean up these contaminated lands and return them to safe and productive use,” 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; and
• 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; and
• Copper Bluff Mine in Hoopa, California.

For the first time, EPA is listing sites on the NPL based on subsurface intrusion, or intrusion of contaminants into occupied spaces. With this recent addition to EPA's system for assessing sites, EPA examined the threat of subsurface intrusion to support listing Rockwell International Wheel & Trim in Grenada, Mississippi and Delfasco Forge in Grand Prairie, Texas.

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 generated $43.6 billion in sales and employed 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