News Releases from Region 04

Sanford Dry Cleaners site in Sanford, Florida included on EPA Superfund Redevelopment Focus List

Sanford Dry Cleaners site in Sanford, Florida included on EPA Superfund Redevelopment Focus List

Media Contact: Dawn Harris-Young, (404) 562-8421 (Direct), (404) 562-8400 (Main), harris-young.dawn@epa.gov

ATLANTA (January 17, 2018) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its initial list of Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) sites with the greatest expected redevelopment and commercial potential.  The Sanford Dry Cleaners site in Sanford, Fla. is one of 31 sites on the list.

“EPA is more than a collaborative partner to remediate the nation’s most contaminated sites, we’re also working to successfully integrate Superfund sites back into communities across the country,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “Today’s redevelopment list incorporates Superfund sites ready to become catalysts for economic growth and revitalization.”

The Sanford Dry Cleaners site includes the area where a laundry and dry cleaning facility operated from the 1940s to 2001. EPA placed the site on the Superfund program’s National Priorities List (NPL) in 2010 because of contaminated groundwater and soil resulting from past operations. In 2005, EPA and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) began investigating site conditions to assess the source of site contamination and how far potential contaminants may have spread. Site contamination does not currently threaten people living and working near the site. EPA in collaboration with FDEP implemented all actions necessary to make sure that local residents and the environment are safe from site contamination.

The approximately 1-acre site is located in Sanford in east-central Florida. Lake Monroe is located one half-mile north of the site. The site includes two adjacent properties with buildings located at 113, 117 and 121 South Palmetto Avenue. All three buildings are currently vacant. The City of Sanford owns the properties. Several commercial properties border the site, including a microbrewery, a restaurant, pottery, and wine stores, and an art studio. Several residential properties are also located in the area.

Potential future uses include commercial or mixed commercial-residential redevelopment.

Superfund redevelopment has helped countless communities reclaim and reuse thousands of acres of formerly contaminated land. Superfund sites on the list have significant redevelopment potential based on previous outside interest, access to transportation corridors, land values, and other critical development drivers.

In July 2017, the Superfund Task Force released its recommendations to streamline and improve the Superfund program including a focus on redevelopment training, tools and resources towards sites on the NPL. EPA will work diligently with developers interested in reusing these and other Superfund sites; will identify potentially interested businesses and industries to keep them apprised of redevelopment opportunities; and will continue to engage with community groups in cleanup and redevelopment activities to ensure the successful redevelopment and revitalization of their communities. 

Administrator Pruitt has set the expectation that there will be a renewed focus on accelerating work and progress at all Superfund sites across the country. The Superfund program remains dedicated to addressing risk and accelerating progress at all of its sites, not just those on the list.

This is not a complete list of sites in the Superfund program with redevelopment potential. The list is intended to be dynamic. Sites will move on and off the list as appropriate.

For more information, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/superfund-redevelopment-initiative/superfund-redevelopment-focus-list

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