The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed adding another 11 sites to its Superfund program of cleaning up the nation's worst toxic waste contaminated areas.
The sites range from lead mine wastes polluting downstream fisheries to a mysterious source of drinking well contamination affecting thousands of people.
The sites are located in nine states — Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and West Virginia — and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.
EPA officials said the problems found at these sites represent a recent trend in the program handling bigger, costlier and more complex cleanups.
Since the Superfund program began in 1980, EPA has completed cleanups at almost 900 sites. However, 1,240 remain on its uncompleted list. Adding these new sites and others that have been proposed, would bring the total to more than 1,300.
The newly proposed Superfund sites are: Jacobsville Neighborhood Soil Contamination in Evansville; Devil's Swamp in Scotlandville, La.; Annapolis Lead Mine in Annapolis, Mo.; Picayune Wood Treating in Picayune, Miss.; Grants Chlorinated Solvents Plume in Grants, N.M.; Diaz Chemical Corp. in Holley, N.Y.; Peninsula Boulevard Groundwater Plume in Hewlett, N.Y.; Ryeland Road Arsenic in Heidelberg Township, Pa.; Cidra Ground Water Contamination in Cidra, Puerto Rico; Pike Hill Copper Mine in Corinth, Vt.; and Ravenswood PCE Ground Water Plume in Ravenswood, W.Va.
Source: The Associated Press and EPA
