Region 1: EPA New England
Partnerships Paying Off As Vermont's Superfund Sites Get Cleaned
Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.
By Robert W. Varney
October
18, 2004
This week a collection of local, state and federal workers will have the unique satisfaction of completing clean up work at the Superfund site in rural Pownal, Vermont. There are few moments prouder than when we are able to return land to productive use within a community -- helping to make a town or neighborhood whole again.
Our success at finishing this work in Pownal is not isolated. EPA's Superfund program is making great strides to assess contaminated sites in Vermont, to rapidly address immediate concerns for human health, and to ensure that all priority areas are funded to remove toxic hazards and return the sites to productive use within the community.
Pownal is a small town. With only 3,500 residents, they didn't command the resources to unilaterally take care of the type of clean up called for following the grim discovery that toxic wastes contaminated an old tannery. But by spearheading efforts to clean their own backyard, Pownal truly become a national model for communities around the country, working to collaborate with federal, state and local officials and individuals to clean and restore an abandoned industrial property.
Local residents know that Pownal's Tannery site was added to the Superfund National Priorities List following the discovery that toxic metals, including chromium, were found in large unlined lagoons nearby. In order to clean these waste areas, EPA allocated more than $23 million. To ensure clean water will be returned to the ecosystem for many years to come, EPA also awarded the town $7.4 million to construct a wastewater treatment plant. EPA's commitment to Vermont's environment is well illustrated by our Superfund program's work in Pownal, but this small town is only one example.
Under Superfund, EPA scientists and engineers identify significant environmental hazards and then address those hazards to protect human health and the environment. Clean ups are often complicated and time-consuming, but our successes are clear. Just as EPA funding and effort is now completing the work in Pownal, we remain committed to other clean ups that are underway or just beginning in other parts of Vermont.
EPA is continuing to aggressively seek and commit funding for the ongoing work on the Elizabeth Mine site, in Strafford. During the past few years, approximately $4 million has been committed to this work to develop a viable plan and begin to stabilize the largest of the mine tailings piles to ensure the safety of the community below the dam. EPA will continue to keep a watchful eye on Burlington's Pine Street Barge Canal Site, where construction of a sand cap over contaminated sediments was completed this past summer.
Not only are we continuing with work already underway. Our commitment is also to continue to identify areas requiring the help of Superfund. In July, EPA added the Pike Hill Copper Mine, in Corinth, to the National Priority List. This addition means that Corinth now is in line to receive the full attention required to ensure that human health is protected and that their local environment is cleaned. Also, just last month, EPA proposed that Williston's Commerce Street Plume be added to the Superfund priority list.
Truly, these examples illustrate that EPA's commitment to Superfund work in Vermont is vigorous. Working with communities and with our state partners, we are advancing long-term goals of being responsible stewards of the environment, and of having clean and safe communities to live in.
In a predominantly rural and agricultural state like Vermont, one might be surprised to learn there are issues with toxic pollution. In Vermont, there are 12 toxic waste sites on the Superfund list, and EPA already has spent more than $45 million to clean them up.
Of course, we all wish to see the work occur more quickly. The fact is, while we have fewer sites needing Superfund attention nationwide, EPA is now addressing bigger and more complex sites, often resulting in longer clean up times for all sites on the priority list.
So where does all this money come from, to pay for these expensive site clean ups? EPA has always adhered to the "polluter pays" principle, and we continue to aggressively attempt to identify a responsible party for any lingering toxic pollution. Almost 70 percent of Superfund clean ups continue to be paid for by the person or company responsible for the contamination -- amounting to about $21 billion since the early 1980's. When a responsible party can not be identified, Congress allocates money to ensure that high priority Superfund sites get cleaned up and property is returned to productive use for a community.
Even as our work in Pownal is now completed, EPA continues to have more work to do in Vermont. But as we take stock of our recent accomplishments and efforts in Vermont, I believe our collective efforts to leave our land and communities in better shape than before is paying off.
Robert W. Varney is regional administrator of EPA's New England Office in Boston.