EPA Begins Reviews of Nine Massachusetts Superfund Site Cleanups This Year
BOSTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will conduct comprehensive reviews of previously-completed cleanup work at nine National Priorities List (NPL) Superfund sites in Massachusetts this year. The sites, including one federal facility that is also listed as a NPL Superfund site, will undergo a legally-required Five-Year Review to ensure that previous remediation efforts at the site continue to protect public health and the environment.
"It is a major EPA priority to make continued progress cleaning up Superfund sites across New England. Once cleanup work at all or a portion of a site is completed, EPA conducts regular periodic reviews of our previous work to ensure that it is continuing to protect human health and the environment," said EPA New England Regional Administrator Dennis Deziel.
"EPA's Five-Year Reviews help to ensure that the cleanup at Superfund sites continue to meet the Commonwealth's requirements, protecting public health and the environment," said Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Martin Suuberg.
Background
The Superfund program, a federal program established by Congress in 1980, investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country and works to facilitate activities to return them to productive use. Under the Trump Administration, the Superfund program has reemerged as a priority to fulfill EPA's core mission of protecting human health and the environment.
EPA is actively involved in Superfund studies and cleanups at 40 sites in Massachusetts, including eight federal facilities. There are many phases of the Superfund cleanup process including considering future use and redevelopment and conducting post-cleanup monitoring of sites. EPA must ensure completed remedies continue to be protective of public health and the environment. The NPL Superfund sites where EPA will begin work on Five-Year Reviews in 2020 are listed below, and the web links provide detailed information on site status and past assessment and cleanup activity. Once the Five-Year Review is complete, its findings will be posted to the website in a final report.
Five-Year Reviews of Superfund sites in Massachusetts to be completed in 2020
Blackburn & Union Privileges, Walpole, Mass. www.epa.gov/superfund/blackburn
Norwood PCBS, Norwood, Mass. www.epa.gov/superfund/norwood
Atlas Tack, Fairhaven, Mass. www.epa.gov/superfund/atlas
Cannon Engineering, Bridgewater, Mass. www.epa.gov/superfund/cannon
Charles George Reclamation Trust Landfill, Tyngsborough, Mass. www.epa.gov/superfund/charlesgeorge
Groveland Wells, Groveland, Mass. www.epa.gov/superfund/groveland
New Bedford, New Bedford, Mass. www.epa.gov/superfund/newbedford
PSC Resources, Palmer, Mass. www.epa.gov/superfund/psc
Federal Facility
Fort Devens, Ayer, Shirley, Lancaster and Harvard., Mass. www.epa.gov/superfund/devens
More information on Superfund and other cleanup sites in New England: https://www.epa.gov/cleanups/cleaning-new-england