EPA Announces Superfund Cleanup Progress for FY 2009
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released today the annual summary of the Superfund program’s fiscal year (FY) 2009 progress. The report shows that the program continues to make significant progress in achieving its mission of cleaning up the country’s most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites and protecting the health of nearby communities and ecosystems from harmful contaminants.

In FY 2009, which ended on Sept. 30, EPA completed all of its construction projects at 20 sites, for a cumulative total of 1,080 sites with construction completed – 67 percent of the top priority sites ranked on the National Priorities List (NPL). Superfund has continued to protect communities and the environment by listing 20 new sites and proposing that 23 sites be added to the NPL in FY 2009.."

EPA Adds 11 Hazardous Waste Sites to Superfund’s National Priorities List / EPA also proposes to add 10 additional sites
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is adding 11 new hazardous waste sites
that pose risks to human health and the environment to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites. Also, EPA is proposing to add 10 other sites to the list. Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country.

To date, there have been 1,607 sites listed on the NPL. Of these sites, 336 sites have been deleted resulting in 1,271 final sites currently on the NPL, including
the 11 new final sites added in this rulemaking. With the proposal of the 10 new sites, there are 66 proposed sites awaiting final agency action: 61 in the general Superfund section and five in the federal facilities section. There are a total of 1,337 final and proposed sites.

Contaminants found at the final and proposed sites include antimony, arsenic, barium, benzo-a-anthracene, boron, cadmium, chloromethane, chromium, copper, dichloroethene (DCE), hexachlorobenze, lead, mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), selenium, silver, tetrachloroethene (PCE), trichloroethane (TCA), trichloroethene (TCE), vinyl chloride, and zinc.

With all Superfund sites, EPA tries to identify and locate the parties potentially responsible for the contamination. For the newly listed sites without viable potentially responsible parties, EPA will investigate the full extent of the contamination before starting cleanup at the site. Therefore, it may be several
years before significant cleanup funding is required for these sites."

EPA Adds Nine Hazardous Waste Sites to Superfund’s National Priorities List / EPA also proposes to add an additional 13 new sites to the NPL
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is adding nine new hazardous waste sites that pose risks to human health and the environment to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites. Also, EPA is proposing to add 13 other sites to the list. Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country.

To date, there have been 1,596 sites listed on the NPL. Of these sites, 332 sites have been deleted resulting in 1,264 final sites currently on the NPL. With the proposal of the 13 new sites, there are 67 proposed sites awaiting final agency action: 62 in the general Superfund section and five in the federal facilities section. There are a total of 1,331 final and proposed sites..."