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Milestone Reached Moving Hazardous Waste Sites to Productive Use

Release Date: 11/20/2006
Contact Information: Roxanne Smith (202) 564-4355 / [email protected]; En español: Lina Younes (202) 564-4355 / [email protected]

(Washington, D.C. - Nov. 20, 2006) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a major milestone: the completion of construction at the 1,000th site under Superfund, the federal government program that cleans up abandoned hazardous waste sites.

"The Superfund program has accomplished a great deal over its 25-year-history," stated Susan Bodine, EPA's assistant administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. "Today, we celebrate Superfund's progress and impacts on environmental practices, economic vitality, and the good that comes when communities are meaningfully involved in cleanup decisions."

Today, at 95 percent of all Superfund sites listed by the agency, construction is complete or construction is in progress. Five hundred fifty sites are ready to be or have already been returned to communities for productive uses.

Protecting human health and the environment and restoring contaminated properties to environmental and economic vitality are EPA priorities. EPA is working with communities to transform contaminated sites into community assets. Locations that once pulled local economies down are now generating new tax revenues and serving as catalysts for broader revitalization. Redevelopment at Superfund sites has resulted in more than 80,000 on-site jobs and $2.7 billion in annual income.

To mark the 1000th construction completion, EPA officials joined South Carolina state and local government officials, and representatives of the Magnolia Development LLC and Cherokee Investment Partners at the Macalloy Corporation Site celebration. The Macalloy Corporation Site exemplifies EPA's commitment to environmental and economic revitalization. By integrating remediation and redevelopment plans, EPA and its partners completed work at the site in six years and several million dollars less than original estimates. Existing commercial and industrial businesses along the Ashley River will be relocated onto about 30 acres of the site, and the Charleston area is expected to benefit from a new port facility at the remaining roughly 115 acres of the site.

Superfund was created in 1980 when Congress enacted the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to clean up the nation's uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. 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. EPA works closely with communities, potentially responsible parties, scientists, researchers, contractors, and state, local, tribal, and federal authorities on site cleanup. Together with these groups, EPA identifies hazardous waste sites, tests the conditions of the sites, develops cleanup plans, and cleans up the sites.

Information about the Superfund Program: epa.gov/superfund/news/1000cc.htm