What is a Superfund site?
A Superfund site is a toxic waste site that falls under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program. After public awareness grew about heavily polluted areas like Love Canal, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (also known as Superfund law) in 1980. Under the law, companies and other parties found responsible for polluting sites are required to clean up the area or pay the costs for cleanup to the EPA.
Superfund is the primary federal government program to clean up the nation’s uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. A Superfund site is any land in the United States that has been contaminated by hazardous waste and identified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a candidate for cleanup because it poses a risk to human health or the environment or both. Under the Superfund program, abandoned, accidentally spilled, or illegally dumped hazardous wastes that pose a current or future threat to human health or the environment are cleaned up. To accomplish its mission, EPA works closely with communities, potentially responsible parties (PRPs), scientists, researchers, contractors, and state, local, tribal, and other federal authorities. Together with these groups, EPA identifies hazardous waste sites, tests the conditions of the sites, formulates cleanup plans, and cleans up the sites. The National Priorities List is a list of the worst hazardous waste sites that have been identified
Related Questions
- How can I find out if there is a known tank leak, superfund cleanup site, landfill or other potential source of ground-water contamination in my area?
- How can I find out if there is a known tank leak, Superfund cleanup site, landfill or other potential source of groundwater contamination in my area?
- Is Smoky Canyon a Superfund site?
