Superfund sites, National Priority List

One of the mandates of the Agency forToxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) (under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, Section 104(i)(3), or Superfund) is to address the potential for adverse effects on public health resulting from lead exposure. Lead has been identified as a contaminant in at least 1,026 of the National Priorities List (NPL) sites and is currently ranked first on the Priority List of Hazardous Substances (ATSDR 1996a). Consequently,... 

After lead, arsenic is the most common contaminant at US Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) sites (EPA, 2002a, 2). As of 2002, arsenic was a contaminant of concern at 568 or 47% of 1209 NPL sites with records of decision (RODs) (EPA, 2002a, 2). Among the arsenic-contaminated sites, 380 of them have contaminated groundwater, a total of 86 have arsenic-contaminated surface water, and the number of sites with arsenic-contaminated soils and sediments are 372 and 154, respectively (EPA, 2002b, 2.2). Appendix B in US EPA (2002b) lists the locations of Superfund sites where arsenic is a contaminant of concern. 

The EPA Hazardous Ranking System computes a numerical score for hazardous waste. If the score exceeds a predetermined value, the waste site is placed on the National Priority List (NPL) for Superfund cleanup. Discuss the pros and cons of such a ranking system. Describe a possible situation in which an air contaminant is controlled but the control system used transfers the contaminant problem to another medium, such as water or soil. 

Some sites are easy to elassify due to their inehision on the National Priorities List (NPL), state superfund, or other regulatory list. In other eases, debate ean and does arise to determine if a site should be treated as hazardous. Eor example, some sites eommonly referred to as brown fields have eontamination levels that are eonsidered low. Sometimes levels of eontamination are so low that exposure levels to workers do not reaeh aetion levels or permissible exposure levels (PEL). Some firms have ehosen to treat low-level eontaminated sites as if they fell under HAZWOPER requirements. This is a somewhat eonservative approaeh whieh provides a eomfort faetor for management and potentially responsible parties (PRP) or other entities. 

The Superfund database containing information on all aspects of hazardous waste sites from initial discover) to listing on the National Priorities List. Magnetic tapes are available quarterly from NTIS. Summaiy data under the Freedom of Information Act is available free by calling the Superfund Automated Phone System +1 800 775-5037. 

The toxicological profiles are developed by ATSDR pursuant to Section 104(i) (3) and (5) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA or Superfund) for hazardous substances found at Department of Energy (DOE) waste sites. CERCLA directs ATSDR to prepare toxicological profiles for hazardous substances most commonly found at facilities on the CERCLA National Priorities List (NPL) and that pose the most significant potential threat to human health, as determined by ATSDR and EPA. ATSDR and DOE entered into a Memorandum of Understanding on November 4, 1992, which provided that ATSDR would prepare toxicological profiles for hazardous substances based upon ATSDR s or DOE s identification of need. The current ATSDR priority list of hazardous substances at DOE NPL sites was announced in the Federal Register on July 24, 1996 (61 FR 38451). 

In 1980, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Commonly known as Superfund, the program under this law is focused on the remediation of abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. Since 1980, Superfund has assessed nearly 44,400 sites. To date, 33,100 sites have been removed from the Superfund inventory to aid their economic redevelopment, and 11,300 sites remain active with the site assessment program or are included in the National Priorities List (NPL) for the implementation of remedial actions. By September 2000, 1509 sites were included in the NPL with ongoing or completed cleanup activities. 

Despite the difficulties of evaluating the true extent of contamination, the latest estimations in Europe in 2006 set a number of 3.5 million potentially contaminated sites [23]. Of these, approximately 0.5 million were expected to require urgent treatment. The National Priorities List of the 2012 US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified 1,305 superfund sites, which are defined as abandoned hazardous waste sites [24]. 

The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 established a 9 billion, five-year fund to pay for continued cleanup of 375 hazardous waste sites. Over 30,000 sites have been inventoried, over 1,100 are on the National Priority List for cleanup, hundreds have had short-term cleanups, but only a small number have had complete cleanups. 

The treatment of heavy metal contaminated soil has become an important issue in the past few years. Nearly one-third of the sites on the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) possess lead concentrations significantly higher than normal background levels.(U The difficulties in treating heavy metal contamination stems from the fact that they cannot be destroyed or biodegraded. 

First of all, the CERCLA requires all hazardous waste releases over a prescribed threshold, known as reportable quantities (RQs), to be reported to National Response Center. Action is taken from that point to determine if it will be a CERCLA site. The CERCLA also established development of a National Contingency Plan. This plan includes all procedures for handling hazardous waste in the United States. The act also requires the creation of an uncontrolled hazardous waste site ranking system (HRS). The HRS determines if a site should be placed on the National Priorities List (NPL), which is a list of all the Superfund sites. 

According to the VIEW Database (1989), silver has been found at 27 sites on the National Priority List of 1,177 sites. The frequency of these sites within the United States can be seen in Figure 5-1. EPA s Contract Laboratory Program (CLP) statistical database indicates that silver has been detected at 100% of the 2,783 Superfund hazardous waste sites that have had samples of all media analyzed by the CLP (CLP 1988). 

National priorities list (NPL) A list of US sites contaminated with hazardous wastes that is maintained by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). The sites are eligible for long-term remediation under the US EPA Superfund program. 

Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). This is an attempt to deal with the many waste sites that exist across the nation. It covers remedial action, including the establishment of a National Priorities List to identify those sites that should have a high priority for remediation. This act authorizes the cleanup of hazardous waste sites, including those containing pesticides, that threaten human health or the environment. If they can be identified, the US EPA is authorized to recover cleanup costs from those parties responsible for the contamination. CERCLA provides a fund to pay for the cleanup of contaminated sites when no other parties are able to conduct the cleanup. The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) (1986) is an amendment to CERCLA that enables the US EPA to identify and cleanup inactive hazardous waste sites and to recover reimbursement of cleanup costs. One section of CERCLA authorizes the EPA to act whenever there is a release or substantial threat of release of a hazardous substance or any pollutant or contaminant that may present an imminent or substantial danger to the public health or welfare into the environment. 

The legislation was amended on October 17, 1986 with the enactment of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA). One of the changes in SARA was to increase the fund from 1.6 to 8.5 billion, and SARA required the EPA to make changes to the Hazard Ranking System to more accurately note the level of danger of sites to be placed on the National Priorities List (NPL). In addition, the NPL must be revised and republished every 2 years, and informally reviewed annually. The term Superfund is derived from the fund of money that is collected by EPA to investigate sites and to... 

Contains information on each hazardous waste disposal or spill site nominated or selected for the EPA National Priorities List for cleanup under Superfund (CERCLA) or SARA amendments. Over 44 000 to date. (CIS, WESTLAW)... 

Times Beach was one of the most extensive cleanups in US EPA Superfund history. The cleanup effort officially began when, in 1983, the US EPA added the site to the first Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) for further investigation and long-term cleanup actions. After the site was listed, the US EPA permanently relocated > 2000 people and tore down all of the homes and businesses. 

EPA (U.S. Environmental Protective Agency). National priorities list sites in California, June 7, 2004, http //www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/ca.htm... 

The Superfund law made cleanup the responsibility of anyone who had dumped toxic wastes, even if the disposal had occurred decades earlier. The federal government prepared a National Priority List that catalogued the worst sites and set up an enforcement program to ensure that sites on the list were taken care of. When no one could be found to pay for the remedy, the government used a pool of money—the Superfund—collected from a new tax on oil and chemical companies.43... 

Stress reactions to occupational and community chemical exposures occur in both acute and chronic forms. Much of the literature pertaining to community reactions to chronic chemical exposures involves hazardous waste sites. By 1988, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified 29,300 sites needing cleanup. The EPA listed 950 of them on the National Priorities List, also known as the Superfund sites [Health Aspects of the Disposal of Waste Chemicals 1986 Upton et al. 1989). Several sources review the medical and environmental aspects of hazardous waste sites (Andelman and Underhill 1987 Committee on Environmental Epidemiology 1991 Epstein et al. 1982 Health Aspects of the Disposal of Waste Chemicals 1986 Petts 1994 Weisaeth 1984). The most common chemicals in these sites include trichloroethylene, lead, toluene, benzene, chloroform, polychlorinated biphenyls, and miscellaneous solvents (Upton et al. 1989). 

USA. There are a number of federal and state sets of guideline values. The US EPA federal soil screening levels were developed to help standardise and accelerate the evaluation and clean-up of contaminated soils at sites on the National Priorities List (NPL).21 The US EPA are clear that the soil screening levels (SSLs) are not national clean-up targets and exceeding them does not necessarily trigger the need for remedial action. Rather they were developed to screen out areas of a site on the NPL that do not require further action or study under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)—better known as the Superfund. The SSLs anticipate a future residential land use. 

Seventeen dioxin sites are on the current Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) four more have been proposed in Updates 2 and 3 to the NPL. Most of these NPL sites, such as Love Canal... 

The nation s first superfund site, fove Canal in Niagara Falls. N.Y.. was finally declared cleaned in 2004 after two decades of work at a cost of 400 million. At the end of 2004.1237 sites remained on the EPA s National Priorities List. 

Find out if there are any hazardous waste sites in your area. Determine if any are on the Superfund National Priority List for cleanup or have been cleaned up. 

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