EPA completes reviews at 12 Massachusetts Superfund sites
BOSTON (Jan. 13, 2025) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has completed required comprehensive site cleanup reviews, known as "five-year reviews," of 12 Superfund sites on the National Priority List across Massachusetts.
As required by law, EPA conducts reviews at Superfund sites after cleanup remedies have been implemented every five years. This comprehensive review of previous work helps ensure that EPA continues to evaluate the performance of cleanup efforts and determines whether any further action to protect human health or the environment is required.
The Superfund sites in Massachusetts where EPA has completed five-year reviews during the 2024 Fiscal Year are listed below. The five-year review of each of these sites, which are available on EPA's website, concluded that the remedies continue to effectively protect peoples' health and the environment and made recommendations for follow up actions where needed.
Completed Massachusetts Five Year Reviews in Fiscal Year 2024:
W.R. Grace & Co. Inc. (Acton Plant), Acton
Nyanza Chemical Waste Dump, Ashland
Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant, Bedford
Baird & McGuire, Holbrook
Rose Disposal Pit, Lanesborough
Silresim Chemical Corp., Lowell
Hathaway & Patterson, Mansfield and Foxborough
Sutton Brook Disposal Area, Tewksbury
Hocomonco Pond, Westborough
South Weymouth Naval Air Station, Weymouth
Industri-Plex, Woburn
Wells G & H, Woburn
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 endeavors to facilitate activities to return them to productive use.
Throughout the process of designing and constructing a cleanup at a hazardous waste site, EPA's primary goal is to protect public health and the environment. At many sites, EPA continues to ensure it remains true to EPA's mission, by requiring cleanup reviews every five years. It is important for EPA to regularly check on these sites to ensure the cleanup remedy is working properly. These reviews identify issues (if any) that may affect the protectiveness of the completed remedy and, if necessary, recommend action(s) necessary to address them.
There are many phases of the Superfund cleanup process including considering future use and redevelopment at sites and conducting post cleanup monitoring of sites.
More information:
For more information about EPA's Superfund program, visit www.epa.gov/superfund