EPA updates Superfund National Priorities list

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is adding five sites to the Superfund National Priorities List. It is also proposing to add another two where releases of contamination pose significant human health and environmental risk.  

"All people in this country, no matter the color of their skin, their ZIP code or income, deserve to live in communities free from harmful pollutants and contaminated lands,” says EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe. “By adding sites to the Superfund National Priorities List, we are accelerating cleanups and working to ensure that more people living near the nation’s most serious uncontrolled or abandoned releases of contamination have the health and environmental protections they deserve.”  

The Superfund National Priorities List includes the nation’s most serious uncontrolled or abandoned releases of contamination. The list serves as the basis for prioritizing EPA Superfund cleanup funding and enforcement actions. Only releases at nonfederal sites included on the Superfund National Priorities List are eligible to receive federal funding for long-term, permanent cleanup. Cleanup at federal facilities is funded by the lead federal agency responsible for the site.   

The agency says it is also withdrawing a previously proposed site, the East 10th Street site in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, following its determination that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will continue to investigate and clean the site under its state cleanup authority.   

The EPA proposes sites to the Superfund National Priorities List based on a scientific determination of risks to people and the environment, consistent with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan. Before it adds a site to the Superfund National Priorities List, a site must meet EPA’s requirements and proposed for addition to the list in the Federal Register, subject to a 60-day public comment period. The agency will add the site to the Superfund National Priorities List if it continues to meet the listing requirements after the public comment period closes and the agency has responded to any comments.  

Superfund cleanups provide health and economic benefits to communities. The EPA says the program has helped reduce birth defects and blood-lead levels among children living near sites. Research has shown residential property values increase up to 24 percent within three miles of sites after cleanup.  

As a result, communities are using previously blighted properties for a wide range of purposes, including retail businesses, office space, public parks, residences, warehouses and solar power generation. As of 2021, EPA has collected economic data on 650 Superfund sites. At these sites, 10,230 businesses are operating, 246,000 people employed, an estimated $18.6 billion in income earned by employees and $65.8 billion in sales generated by businesses.  

For information about Superfund and the Superfund National Priorities List, click here.