Performance Measures of Superfund Sites
The Superfund Program has overseen the cleanup of over a thousand contaminated properties across the country. EPA can work with communities throughout the cleanup process to make sure future users at these sites will be safe. Reusing sites also plays an important role in long-term protectiveness because new users act as stewards for the land. EPA has developed two measures that reflect cleanup milestones linked to a site being ready for reuse.
The Sitewide Ready for Anticipated Use, or SWRAU, measure is included with other Superfund measures as part of EPA’s Strategic Plan. The SWRAU measure was developed to comply with EPA's responsibility to report long-term, outcome-based accomplishments under the Government Performance and Results Act. The SWRAU measure reflects the importance of considering future land use as part of the cleanup process by tracking the number of sites meeting the following criteria:
- All aspects of the cleanup are in place and have been achieved for any media that may affect current and reasonably anticipated future land uses, so that there are no unacceptable risks.
- All land use restrictions or other controls required as part of the cleanup are in place.
- Sites are final or deleted NPL sites, or Superfund Alternative Approach (SAA) sites, that have reached the construction completion milestone.
Regions began reporting on the SWRAU measure in FY 2007, after establishing a baseline in 2006.
The SWRAU Checklist is generated automatically within the Superfund Enterprise Management System (SEMS).
The SWRAU measure is an internal performance measure and is not a reporting of site-specific risk. The determination that a site is SWRAU is based on the information available at the time the determination is made. That determination may revert if site conditions change, or if new or additional information is discovered regarding the contamination at the site. If after a site has been designated as SWRAU, EPA becomes aware that any of the requirements are no longer met, then the site can be retracted. The site can be re-designated as SWRAU only when the requirements outlined in the guidance are met.
Cross Program Revitalization Measures (CPRM)
EPA recognized that there was a need to establish a similar, consistent set of measures applied across all of the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response cleanup programs to track the efforts the Agency was making in preparing sites to be returned to use. All 10 EPA Regions began collecting information for a set of CPRM indicators and performance measures in October 2007. This information is updated on a quarterly basis. There are no annual targets in place for the CPRM performance measures at this time.
CPRM Performance Measures
- Acres "Protective for People Under Current Conditions" (PFP) - The number of acres and sites at which there is no complete pathway for human exposures to unacceptable levels of contamination based on current site conditions.
- Acres "Ready for Anticipated Use" (RAU) - The number of acres and sites at which: 1) there is no complete pathway for human exposures to unacceptable levels of contamination based on current site conditions (PFP); 2) all cleanup goals have been achieved for media that may affect current and reasonably anticipated future land uses of the acres or site so that there are no unacceptable risks, and 3) all institutional controls identified as part of the response action have been put in place.
Additional CPRM Information