Region 1: EPA New England
Superfund Program Brings Environmental and Economic Benefits to Vermont
Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.
By Robert W. Varney
September 1, 2003
The rural town of Pownal, VT, with 3,500 residents, is undergoing a metamorphosis. What began as a nightmare with the discovery of toxic wastes at an old tannery, is fast becoming a national model for communities around the country who can see federal, state and local resources working together to clean and restore an abandoned industrial property.
The Pownal Tannery was added to Superfund National Priorities List after EPA discovered large, open, unlined lagoons containing dyes and wastes, including chromium, a toxic metal. Since then, EPA has provided $24 million for the cleanup and just recently awarded the town $7.4 million to construct a much needed wastewater treatment plant. Already, some areas where the cleanup is complete are open for recreational uses.
Pownal Selectman Nelson Brownell is appreciative of EPA’s work, saying that without this federal agency’s help, “Pownal would never have been able to accomplish what it has so far - everything from recreational projects to wastewater treatment.”
The Pine Street Barge Canal Superfund site in Burlington is another parcel with a history of strong interest and involvement from the Vermont citizens. After EPA’s original cleanup plan for the site was rejected by the community, a first-of-its-kind Coordinating Council comprised of local environmental groups, businesses, and federal, state and local governments, worked to find an acceptable cleanup plan. Construction of a sand cap in the canal was completed last March, but not without some unexpected turns in the plan. Site workers found five historic barges resting on the bottom of the canal that would have to encapsulated to ensure public health safety from site contamination. Working with the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, a compromise was reached to study a sunken canal boat near Sloop Island. Artifacts recovered from this study will soon be on display in Basin Harbor.
The citizens of Strafford, VT near the Elizabeth Mine Superfund site have also been integral to the cleanup of the property. EPA recently promised an additional $3 million over the next couple of years to come up with a plan to stabilize the largest of the mine tailings piles to ensure the safety of the community below the dam.
The nation’s Superfund program, created in 1980, funds the cleanup of the most highly contaminated toxic waste sites which pose the highest risk to people’s health. Although cleanups in Vermont and across the country have been complicated and time-consuming, our successes have been clear:
- While the total number of sites needing cleanup is decreasing, the EPA is now addressing bigger, more complex sites, involving more contamination and longer cleanup times.
- Forty percent of the national Superfund budget is being spent to clean up just eight of the largest and most complex sites in the country. Still, more than half of all the sites on the Superfund list have been cleaned up and progress is being made at other sites.
- Almost 70 percent of the cleanups are being paid for by parties responsible for contamination. That amounts to about $21 billion since the start of the program.
Where does the money come from? Each year Congress appropriates nearly $1.3 billion nationally to address Superfund contamination. And the Bush Administration has requested an additional $150 million for the next year.
In a predominantly agricultural state like Vermont, the fact there are any sites on the National Priorities list may be surprising to some. In fact, Vermont has 11 toxic waste sites on the Superfund list and EPA already has spent more than $43.1 million to clean them up. At six of these sites, EPA has installed the cleanup infrastructure needed to restore contaminated groundwater and treat and/or remove contaminated soils and sediments. Two sites already have been taken off the list since no more work needs to be done. EPA is actively working at the other three sites.
EPA spent an additional $2 million at another 10 Vermont properties to protect residents from exposure to hazardous materials left behind when companies have either gone out of business, abandoned their properties or been destroyed by fire.
Thanks to investments by EPA and private parties, the benefits of cleanup have far exceeded what Congress envisioned when it created the Superfund program two decades ago. Some of the most toxic waste sites in the nation’s history have been cleaned up and restored for community use, including the 245-acre Industri-Plex Superfund site in Woburn, MA now home to a Target store and commuter transportation center and the Raymark Industries site in Stratford, CT which is now a bustling shopping center anchored by Home Depot, Walmart and Shaw’s Supermarket.
Redevelopment of these and other similar properties has meant thousands of new jobs and millions of dollars of increased economic vitality in communities across the country. EPA, working with local planners, neighborhood groups, and other community, state and federal partners is investing in America, community-by-community.
Robert W. Varney is regional administrator of EPA's New England Office.