Superfund (Cleanup) Sites
What is hazardous waste?
What is so "hazardous" about these wastes?
What is the Superfund stature?
How has this stature been implemented in Pennsylvania?
Hazardous
waste, a by-product of modern industry, includes contaminated soil, sediment,
subsurface soil, sludge, debris, liquid waste, residuals, and solid waste.
Contaminants most frequently found at hazardous waste sites include heavy
metals such as lead and mercury; Volatile
Organic Compounds (VOCs), which include benzene and chloroform, polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides and herbicides; and creosotes.
Contaminants like these can cause breathing difficulties, developmental
and learning disorders, and chronic health conditions such as cancer.
Also threaten an ecosystem's plants and animals by affecting their reproduction
patterns and survivability.
Citizen
concern over hazardous waste led Congress to establish the Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, "Superfund,"
Program in 1980. The program's goal was (and is today) to locate, investigate,
and clean up the worst sites nationwide. The EPA administers the Superfund
program in cooperation with individual states and tribal governments.
Superfund Environmental Indicators are measures of program performance used to assess the progress made in protecting human health and the environment through site cleanup activities. In its first few years, the Superfund Program deleted very few sites from the National Priorities List following cleanups. As a result, environmental indicators were developed as a way to measure the progress made towards safeguarding public health and the environment that occurs while cleanup is taking place. Current Superfund Environmental Indicators are used to report the number of people protected from immediate and long-term threats, sites where site security controls have been implemented, the amount of contaminants that have been treated, stabilized, or removed through the use of treatment or containment, and the number of sites at which current human exposure to contamination is under control or fall within healthy levels specified by EPA.
Though the Environmental Protection Agency has primary responsibility, the Superfund Program involves a state-federal partnership. In Pennsylvania, the state finances 10% of a funded action with the federal government contributing the remaining 90%. The state is responsible for 100% of the operation and maintenance costs after the cleanup is complete. Through the state's diligence and cooperation, Pennsylvania has become a national leader in achieving cleanup results.
http://www.gasp-pgh.org/news/PR-powerplantwaste2004.html,
http://epa.gov/reg3hwmd/super/PA/index.htm
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/1999/July/279enr.htm
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/airwaste/wm/Superfun/Superfun.htm