The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on May 15 that nine sites have been added to the Superfund National Priorities List. Eight of the nine sites involve groundwater contamination.
The sites and their groundwater issues are:
- Cooper Bluff Mine in Hoopa, California — groundwater is reacting with minerals resulting in acid mine drainage
- Cliff Drive Groundwater Contamination in Logansport, Indiana — a municipal wellfield is contaminated with TCE, PCE, and DCE
- McLouth Steel Corp. in Trenton, Michigan — hazardous waste in leachate is contaminating groundwater
- Sporlan Valve Plant #1 in Washington, Missouri — tank leaks have released TCE, benzene, vinyl chloride, and 1,1-DCE into groundwater
- Magna Metals in Cortlandt Manor, New York — iron, lead, copper, nickel, zinc chlorides, cyanides, and sulfates were discharged to a series of leaching pits contaminating groundwater
- PROTECO in Peñuelas, Puerto Rico — a landfill is leaching mercury and solvents into the groundwater
- Shaffer Equipment/Arbuckle Creek Area in Minden, West Virginia — PCBs and other compounds are in the soil and groundwater
- Schroud property in Chicago, Illinois — soil and waste at the Schroud property and in nearby Indian Creek are contaminated with lead, chromium, and other inorganic compounds
- Arsenic Mine in Kent, New York — the former operated from the mid-1800s through about 1918 to extract arsenic ore for manufacturing products; private wells in the area have arsenic contamination.
Click here to read more from the Federal Register.
In addition to expanding the NPL, the EPA also announced a new series of brownfields grant funding. This is the first round of funding since the program was reauthorized, containing several priorities advocated for by NGWA and its members.
A total of 149 communities were selected to receive $64.6 million in funding to assess, clean up, and redevelop contaminated sites. The FY19 round of funding allows for multipurpose projects to receive money and increases the total amount of clean-up grants to $500,000.
For more information on the projects receiving grants, click here.