All News Releases By Date

 

EPA to Host Public Listening Session on Whether to Add Vapor Intrusion as a Criterion for Superfund Sites

Release Date: 03/15/2011
Contact Information: Mary Simms, (415) 947-4270, simms.mary@epa.gov, Yoshiko Hill, (415) 947-4308, hill.yoshiko@epa.gov

Release date: 03/15/2011

Media Contact Information: Mary Simms, (415) 947-4270, simms.mary@epa.gov, Yoshiko Hill, (415) 947-4308, hill.yoshiko@epa.gov

SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will host its second public listening session on whether to include vapor intrusion threats as a criterion for including hazardous waste sites on the National Priorities List of Superfund sites on March 16, 2011 at the Bentley Reserve in San Francisco, Calif. Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country that pose risks to human health and the environment.

The EPA is soliciting public input on potential revisions to the Hazard Ranking System (HRS), which is currently used to evaluate sites for the Superfund list. The agency will consider information gathered during the comment period, as well as input from its public listening sessions, before making a decision on whether to issue a proposed rulemaking to add vapor intrusion as a criterion to the HRS.

WHERE: Bentley Reserve

301 Battery Street
San Francisco, Calif.

WHEN: Wednesday, March 16

EPA presentation: 6:00 to 6:20 p.m.
Public Comments: 6:20 to 9:00 p.m.

EPA will host its final public listening session on March 30, 2011 at the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ southwest regional office in Albuquerque, New Mexico. All dates, times and addresses for the listening sessions have been posted on EPA’s Superfund webpage.

Vapor intrusion is the movement of pollution from contaminated groundwater or soil as a vapor into air, and is a particular concern if vapors enter an overlying home or other building.

For more information on EPA listening sessions and the potential change to the HRS, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/hrsaddition.htm

For more information on vapor intrusion, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/oswer/vaporintrusion/

For more information on the HRS, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/superfund/programs/npl_hrs/hrsint.htm