EPA Adds 12 Hazardous Waste Sites to Superfund

EPA’s Superfund program has identified 12 new hazardous waste sites throughout the U.S. to add to its list of locations that need to be cleaned up, in addition to six other sites that have been proposed as additions.

Superfund has already added 1,581 sites, of which 324 have been deleted. Contaminants found at these sites range from arsenic to copper to lead.

Before sites are cleaned, the EPA investigates and tries to identify parties responsible for the contamination. Therefore, it may be several years before funding is required to clean these sites.

The 12 added sites are:

1. Lusher Street Ground Water Contamination (Elkhart, Ind.)
2. Plating Inc. (Great Bend, Kan.)
3. Washington County Lead District—Old Mines (Old Mines, Mo.)
4. Washington County Lead District—Potosi (Potosi, Mo.)
5. Washington County Lead District—Richwoods (Richwoods, Mo.)
6. Sherwin-Williams/Hilliards Creek (Gibbsboro, N.J.)
7. Chem-Fab (Doylestown, Pa.)
8. San German Ground Water Contamination (San German, Puerto Rico)
9. Donna Reservoir and Canal System (Donna, Texas)
10. Midessa Ground Water Plume (Odessa, Texas)
11. San Jacinto River Waste Pits (Harris County, Texas)
12. Hidden Lane Landfill (Sterling, Va.)

The six proposed sites are:

1. Iron King Mine—Humboldt Smelter (Dewey-Humboldt, Ariz.)
2. Nelson Tunnel/Commodore Waste Rock (Creede, Colo.)
3. Flash Cleaners (Pompano Beach, Fla.)
4. Aberdeen Contaminated Ground Water (Aberdeen, N.C.)
5. Attebury Grain Storage Facility (Happy, Texas)
6. Old Esco Manufacturing (Greenville, Texas)

To make sure that your home isn’t contributing to these hazardous sites, properly dispose of your Earth 911′s recycling locator.