Note: This information is provided for reference purposes only. Although the information provided here was accurate and current when first created, it is now outdated.

"No child should have to live near a toxic waste dump." - President William J. Clinton

EPA is bringing bold thinking to our work to clean up hazardous waste sites. New England has almost 100 of the nation's roughly 1400 priority hazardous waste sites. Last year, EPA's New England office launched an ambitious reform effort to reinvent the way we address sites contaminated by hazardous waste. This reform agenda is designed to achieve faster Superfund cleanups at sites with high economic reuse potential. This reinvention also involves a series of steps to ensure greater community involvement in cleanup decisions, earlier and fairer settlements for small businesses, and increased development of new technologies for improved cleanups. The success of these reforms will be measured in hard and fast environmental results -- by more timely, appropriate, and cost-effective site clean ups. A centerpiece of the Superfund Reform Agenda, the Brownfields Initiative, is designed to promote the economic reuse of previously contaminated sites. "Brownfields" are abandoned or under-used industrial or commercial sites where development is complicated by environmental contamination. People who might otherwise consider redeveloping these sites are held back by concerns about their liability they may face because of hazardous waste at the site. There are over 10,000 such Brownfields in New England today. EPA's goal is to remove liability barriers to redevelopment and return hazardous waste sites to productive economic reuse without sacrificing protection of the environment. EPA is committed to providing grants to communities, clarifying the liability of potential developers (through statements or letters called "covenants not to sue"), and building partnerships with states, cities and community representatives through aggressive outreach efforts. Recent successes include the award of a $200,000 grant to the City of Boston to inventory and prioritize contaminated properties in the Dudley Street area. The goal of this project: to achieve redevelopment at five sites. Other pilot projects -- adding up to $1 million in Brownfields funding for New England communities -- include the Lawrence Gateway Project and Worcester, Massachusetts; the State of Rhode Island, with a focus on the Woonasquatucket and Blackstone Rivers area; and an ongoing project in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Communities from every corner of New England are encouraged to apply for Brownfields funding or call for EPA's New England office for assistance. The Small Parties Initiative is designed to provide liability relief to small parties more efficiently and earlier in the process -- through a legal mechanism known as de minimis settlements -- and by providing small parties with understandable, practical information. This process has been successfully implemented at Somersworth Landfill in New Hampshire where a de minimis settlement was reached with 15 parties -- parties which, individually, had contributed little to the overall problem. What is particularly unique about the settlement is that EPA was able to craft this settlement on the volumetric evidence typical of many landfill sites. EPA undertook an extensive evaluation of the testimonial and documentary evidence and took a more aggressive and creative approach to interpreting this evidence. This approach will help to establish a favorable precedent for similar landfill settlements. The goal of EPA's Innovative Technology Initiative is to enhance environmental management and the marketplace by promoting greater use of innovative monitoring, measurement, and remediation technologies at hazardous waste sites. This goal is being realized through a variety of avenues: grant awards, field demonstrations and co-sponsorship of technology forums with venture capitalists, universities and interstate organizations. Many of these new technologies show promise in achieving better protection at less cost or in less time. In New England, innovative remediation technologies are being designed, constructed or operated at 31 Superfund sites. For example, in-situ bioremediation is expected to begin in the spring of 1996 at Hocomonco Pond in Westboro, Massachusetts. The ultimate goal of the in-situ bioremediation process is to degrade site contaminants to carbon dioxide and water. This goal will be accomplished by stimulating indigenous microorganisms that normally use organic compounds as a source of carbon in their diet. One of the challenges we face in developing new technologies is the financial risk involved in testing them. Communities and companies are understandably reluctant to serve as "guinea pigs" for technologies that don't have an established track record. EPA's New England office was the first in the nation to commit EPA to share in the risk involved with an innovative technology. EPA will share the financial risk with the community of Somersworth, NH and other private parties for an innovative in-situ ground water treatment system at the Somersworth Landfill. The Community Empowerment Initiative expands our efforts to involve local communities fully in decisions about site cleanup and future property uses. EPA has targeted three New England sites for particular attention under this initiative: New Bedford (MA) Harbor; Massachusetts Military Reservation (Otis AFB), and Pine Street Canal (Burlington, VT). In each case, a public/private forum has been created to ensure participation by citizens, local and state officials, and potentially responsible parties in the design of the cleanup process. The goal of the Responsible Alternatives to Superfund Listing Initiative is to maximize environmental results by ensuring EPA resources are directed where they will be most effective. This process helps clean up sites in a more cost-effective and timely fashion by facilitating cleanup by states and property owners where appropriate. As incentives for redevelopment and reuse, EPA removed 899 New England sites from the Superfund inventory -- the "master list" of sites. By taking these sites off the list, EPA is indicating that no further federal action is planned at the site. This simple act often reduces the stigma associated with hazardous waste sites and can help spur economic redevelopment. Recognizing that information and technologies can become outdated, the Remedy Decision Update Initiative provides reviews old decisions at Superfund sites where construction has not yet started. This "re-review" determines whether the clean up plan should be modified in favor of more cost-effective remedies. EPA is using this process to amend its plan for the clean up of the Norwood PCB Superfund Site in Norwood, Massachusetts, which was finalized in 1989. Changes to the original remedy will protect public health, allow for reuse of the property within a relatively short time, and save taxpayers big money -- in the case of the Norwood site, over $10 million at no cost to the environment. Start RCRA Cleanup 2000 is an initiative designed to get RCRA Corrective Action work started in more cooperative -- and often more efficient -- manner. What makes a RCRA site different from a Superfund site is that RCRA sites are often contaminated facilities that are still in business and subject to hazardous waste management laws. The short term goal of this initiative is to implement final solutions or stabilize the highest priority RCRA facilities -- a group of approximately 160 out of the 500 or so RCRA Corrective Action sites in the region -- by the year 2000. EPA's New England office is pursuing this ambitious goal using methods like voluntary corrective action by industry; expanding the role of the New England states; and improving cooperative efforts with our Superfund Removal Program. Voluntary commitments have been received from General Dynamics - Electric Boat Division; Sikorsky-Bridgeport; Tech Systems; and Technicircuits to begin field work consistent with our initiative goals.