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Superfund Program Implements the Recovery Act

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Superfund Stimulus Funding

  1. QUESTION: How much funding does the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act contain for the Superfund program?

ANSWER:  The Superfund remedial program is receiving $600 million dollars to conduct long-term cleanup actions.  The Recovery Act also allows for 3 percent ($18 million) of the funds to be used for management and oversight purposes. 

  1.  QUESTION:  How can I find out whether the Superfund site near me is receiving stimulus funding?

ANSWER:  You can find the list of sites receiving Recovery Act funding on the Recovery Act individual site fact sheets page.This Web page also provides links to site-specific information about the site, including the work to be accomplished with the funding

  1.  QUESTION:  Where can I find out how much Recovery Act funding the site near me is receiving?

ANSWER:  Information on the amount of funding EPA estimates will be allocated to each site is available on the Recovery Act individual site fact sheets page.

  1. QUESTION:  When do you expect work to start with this money?

ANSWER:  The start of work will vary across sites.  Individual project starts will depend on a variety of factors including the time associated with the competitive acquisition process, the type of construction at the sites, and the length of the construction season.  At least one site, Iron Mountain Mine, in Redding, CA, will begin Recovery Act-funded construction activities the week of April 13, 2009. With the stimulus funds, EPA expects work to accelerate within the next month at many sites where work is already underway.  This work will expedite protection of human health and the environment much sooner than expected.  Overall, EPA has developed an implementation plan that will obligate funds ahead of statutory requirements.

  1. QUESTION:  How can I find out about job opportunities at the Superfund site near me that will be receiving stimulus funding?

ANSWER:  EPA does not directly hire individual workers to conduct cleanup activities at Superfund sites.  Rather, we award contracts to qualified firms in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) as well as fund assistance agreements to support work performed by our state and federal partners.  For sites receiving Recovery Act funding, we primarily will use existing contracts previously awarded under the FAR.  In a few instances, we expect to award new site-specific contracts through the FAR process. 

Information about existing response action contracts is available on the Superfund Contract Opportunities Web page.  Response action contractors will make decisions as to whether they will need to hire new personnel to meet their contractual obligations.

Information about new contract opportunities will be made available through the Federal Business Opportunities Web page.

  1. QUESTION:  What criteria did EPA use to select which Superfund remedial projects would receive Recovery Act funding?

ANSWER:  EPA focused the stimulus funds at National Priorities List (NPL) sites with unfunded construction projects and at NPL sites with existing construction projects that could benefit from additional funding. Removal projects at non-NPL sites were not eligible for stimulus funding since the legislative language limited the funds to the Superfund remedial (long-term cleanup) program.

Key considerations for selecting the Recovery Act projects included the readiness of the project to obligate and expend the stimulus funds quickly; opportunities for immediate short- and longer-term health and environmental benefits; opportunities to reduce project costs and schedules; and environmental justice concerns and benefits.

  1. QUESTION:  How many jobs does EPA think will be created by the Superfund stimulus funds?

ANSWER:  Though we cannot estimate how many jobs will be created by Superfund stimulus funds at this time, EPA is developing an approved methodology for estimating the number of jobs that will be created. That estimate will be made publicly available as soon as possible.

Historically, many Superfund projects use local labor, and Superfund cleanups usually involve many types of jobs. Jobs that have been involved in Superfund cleanups include:

  1. QUESTION:  How can I find out what kind of progress is being made at a site that received stimulus funding?

ANSWER:  Information about progress made at stimulus-funded sites will be made available on an ongoing basis on the Superfund Recovery Act Web page, as well as on the EPA Recovery Act page and Recovery.gov. EPA will include information about resource utilization and performance progress of Superfund-related Recovery Act remedial activities, as outlined in guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget.

Site-specific information for all Superfund sites receiving Recovery Act funding will be available on the Recovery Act individual site fact sheets page.

  1. How many states have Superfund sites receiving Recovery Act funding?

ANSWER:  There are 28 states with Superfund sites receiving Recovery Act funding; they are:

California

Colorado

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Kansas

Massachusetts

Minnesota

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

Oklahoma

Pennsylvania

South Dakota

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

  1. QUESTION: What kind of impacts does EPA think the Superfund stimulus funding will have?

ANSWER:  We anticipate a number of benefits, including:

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