.Fig. 1. Environmental Sampling at a Superfund Site
Due to CERLCA mandates, the National Priorities List is updated periodically. EPA publishes these updates in the Federal register. On March 4, EPA will be adding ten new sites to the NPL, with one site out of these (Gowanus Canal) being promulgated in a separate rule.
What is CERCLA? This is the acronym for Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. Industry jargon calls it “Superfund” and the act was created on December 11, 1980. Basically the law applies a tax on chemical and petroleum industries and grants Federal authority to respond to hazardous substance releases that may put the public or the environment at risk. The Act allowed the collection of $1.6 billion over the period of five years. It was amended on October 17, 1986 by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act, otherwise known as SARA. This amendment made many important changes and additions to the existing program, including an increase of the size of the trust fund to 8.5 billion. SARA also required EPA to revise the Hazard Ranking System. This ranking system is the primary method that EPA uses to place uncontrolled waste sites on the National Priorities List.
What is the National Priorities List (NPL)? The NPL is a list of the known releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants and/or contaminants throughout the United States and its territories. Sites that are placed on this list let EPA determine the nature of the hazards and how to remediate them for safe public use in the future.
On March 4, the EPA will be publishing ten new Superfund sites in the Federal Register. This list will also include what sort of contamination exits on the site and what steps will be taken to clean it up. EPA attempts to identify and locate the parties that are potentially responsible for the contamination and obligates them to provide funds for the remediation.
Here are the ten new sites that have been added to the National Priorities List:
Salt Chuck Mine (Outer Ketchikan County, Alaska)
JJ Seifert Machine (Ruskin, Fla.)
Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp – Jacksonville (Jacksonville, Fla.)
Chemetco (Madison County, Ill.)
Lake Calumet Cluster (Chicago, Ill.)
Gratiot County Golf Course (St. Louis, Mich.)
Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp – Navassa (Navassa, N.C.)
Gowanus Canal (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
Black Butte Mine (Cottage Grove, Ore.)
Van Der Horst USA Corporation (Terrell, Texas)
There are also eight more sites that have been proposed for the National Priorities List. The proposed rule will also be published in the March 4, 2010 Federal Register. These are:
Sanford Dry Cleaners (Sanford, Fla.)
St. Clair Shores Drain (St. Clair Shores, Mich.)
Vienna Wells (Vienna, Mo.)
ACM Smelter and Refinery (Cascade County, Mont.)
Wright Chemical Corporation (Riegelwood, N.C.)
Black River PCBs (Jefferson County, N.Y.)
Dewey Loeffel Landfill (Nassau, N.Y.)
Smokey Mountain Smelters (Knox County, Tenn.)
More information on the new final NPL sites can be found at:http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/newfin.htm
