Superfund Solutions Initiative

On June 3, 2026, EPA announced the agency’s new forward-looking Superfund Solutions initiative to accelerate cleanups of more than 1,340 Superfund sites on the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL). Through this long-term initiative, EPA will roll out key, gold-standard of science investments to cut red tape, make swift clean up decisions, modernize tools, and increase cooperative federalism to deliver maximum human health and environmental protections.  

Trump EPA Results

Since day one, the Trump Administration has had renewed focus on delivering on its core mission and has proven significant progress can be made at Superfund sites when resources are used correctly. Since January 2025, the Trump EPA has:

• Completed more than 290 cleanups
• Selected 30 cleanup remedies and updated 59 cleanup plans
• Cleaned up over 59 million cubic yards of contaminated soil and water
• Received $864 million from responsible parties
• Shaved off multiple years from cleanup projects 

Why it Matters

The cleanup and revitalization of contaminated land, produces tangible results that make Americans’ lives better and have led to: 

• 10,810 businesses operating 
• 233,900+ people being employed
• $20.7 billion in annual employment income 
• The generation of more than $69 billion in revenue in Fiscal Year 2025 alone from businesses operating on Superfund sites
• More than 1000 Superfund sites supporting some type of reuse

What the Superfund Solutions Initiative Brings to Cleanup Efforts 

The Superfund program is focusing its efforts on improving the following three areas of the Superfund program.

• Enhance Project Management
• Deploy Tools and Authorities Earlier
• Apply Smarter Science for Smarter Outcomes

Map of Superfund Solutions Successes

Enhance Project Management

• Expedite ongoing investigations at more than 500 Superfund sites to move more quickly from the evaluation phase into the cleanup phase, reducing human health and environmental risks faster.  
• Increase targeted water, soil, and air sampling, as well as conduct more timely inspections of facilities and land to get site teams into communities sooner, ensure long-term human health protections, and support reuse opportunities that can bring economic benefits to communities.  
• Accelerate the selection of the best cleanup approach through the more rapid development of remedial investigations, feasibility studies, and records of decision.  
• Modernize site management practices so that EPA can reach decisions faster and can concentrate on sites that need the most attention.
• Streamline EPA’s use of licensed contractors to reduce cleanup timelines by up to a year. 

With EPA applying innovative project management tools more frequently, communities will be able to see results in real time as the cleanup progresses. EPA will also use these tools to increase collaboration with its federal, state, and Tribal partners to support their ability to intervene sooner to address contamination. These tools will help EPA streamline decision-making at every step of the process, which can shorten negotiations, and lead to faster cleanups, increased cost savings, more efficient project management, and healthier communities.

Trump EPA has already piloted the application of these solutions resulting in early successes:

• Streamlined negotiations between federal partners: Enhanced project management and proactive cross-agency collaboration have expedited work on the redevelopment of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in less than four months. Under a joint U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-EPA agreement, the nuclear energy company General Matter signed a multi-decade lease with DOE in August 2025 for the reuse of a 100-acre parcel in Paducah, Kentucky. General Matter’s $1.5 billion investment will be the largest in western Kentucky's history. The project is expected to generate about $70 million in annual economic benefits for the region and create 140 high-paying jobs, while transforming a long-term nuclear byproduct into a stable, usable material to save taxpayers over $800 million in disposal fees. Traditionally, transferring federal property takes multiple years, but by using enhanced project management tools EPA was able to cut this timeline to less than four months.                                                                                                                                                                                                 
• Expedited the identification of health risk: In April 2025, the Trump EPA announced the expedited implementation of the best cleanup approach for the West Lake Landfill Site in Missouri. EPA collaborated with the responsible parties to cut nearly two years off of the site timeline to excavate radioactive waste that has been affecting the St. Louis community. In March 2026, EPA completed confirmation sampling in under one year, ahead of schedule, so the site cleanup process could progress to the next phase. EPA is also continuing to turn around reviews faster, and deliver much needed transparency about the cleanup progress to the community.                                                                                                                                                                                                           
• Streamlined contracting: At the Former United Zinc and Associated Smelters site in Allen County, Kansas, the Trump EPA streamlined its contracting approach to reduce administrative lead time by up to one third. In 2025, EPA led the cleanup of 239 residential properties and the removal of 32,533 cubic yards of waste at former smelter sites across Region 7, including in Allen County. Additional contract implementation efficiencies at the site were achieved by using qualified, pre-approved contractors, which shortened timeframes and expedited the offer, review, and selection process for this essential cleanup work.

Deploy Tools and Authorities Earlier

• Simultaneously evaluate all options under Superfund, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act hazardous waste cleanup program, and the Brownfields program.
• Start work on short-term projects to provide immediate protections, while comprehensive site cleanup approaches are finalized.
• Expand cooperation and provide more training and capacity-building tools to enhance state capacity to manage cleanups and reduce unnecessary federal involvement.  
• Standardize approaches so federal, state, and local partners do not reinvent the wheel for every cleanup action.   

Modernizing the Superfund cleanup approach will help get site teams into communities sooner, cleanup sites faster, ensure long-term human health protections, and support reuse opportunities that can bring economic benefits to the communities we serve. EPA will also increase collaboration with state, federal, and Tribal partners to support their ability to intervene sooner to address contamination, using their available authorities. By leveraging EPA’s full suite of cleanup authorities—including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Brownfields program, and the Superfund Alternative Approach—EPA can cut through outdated lengthy processes and accelerate cleanups.

 Trump EPA has already piloted the application of these solutions resulting in early successes:

• Completed short-term project that led to immediate health protections: In July 2025, EPA listed the J.H. Baxter Superfund site in Eugene, Oregon on the National Priorities List (NPL) and conducted removal actions to significantly reduce risk. At this newly listed site, EPA moved quickly to put a contract in place to fully characterize the site and assess cleanup options. Concurrently, the removal program identified known and new contamination hot spots that could be addressed through early action. By using its removal program to tackle the most significant contamination early, EPA is accelerating risk reduction at the J.H. Baxter site in ways that are expected to save years compared to a more traditional remedial approach where clean up actions are not started until a full remedial plan is in place. 

• Completed short-term project that led to immediate health protections: In September 2025, EPA approved an expedited cleanup approach for Benedict Park which is located on the Colorado Smelter site in Pueblo, CO. This year, EPA is beginning work on a short-term project that will provide immediate protections, while comprehensive plans are being developed. The original cleanup plan combined Benedict Park with a larger area that was slated to be addressed as a single project. This large-scale approach meant that the project was originally expected to take about five years to complete. By using its removal authority, EPA will be able to focus its attention first on cleaning up the park, the area where children were most exposed, shaving years off the original schedule and delivering both economic and community health benefits much sooner.

• Expanded cooperation with state, local, and tribal partners: At the Cherokee County site in Kansas, a former mining area in Southeast Kansas, EPA awarded a health education cooperative agreement to the local health department in December 2025, to empower and leverage local resources in support of the large residential lead cleanup. Since the start of the agreement, EPA developed and shared an electronic property registry with the health department to inform outreach efforts, childhood case management, and overall community awareness of EPA’s mission to address childhood exposure to lead. This cooperative partnership is a powerful example of leveraging local partners’ expertise to provide additional layers of protection for the community, a key aspect of EPA’s 2025 Residential Lead Directive. 

Apply Smarter Science for Smarter Outcomes

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  Align risk assessment approaches with gold-standard science and ensure they address site-specific risks while anticipating the community’s future use of the site. 

• For residential lead cleanup sites, use a single target blood lead level for Superfund decisions, as announced in the Trump EPA’s October 2025 Residential Lead Directive. 
• Use the latest innovations to assess the potential for critical minerals recovery at legacy hard rock mining sites.

EPA is committed to using the latest science and cleanup technologies to address contamination at sites. We will modernize how we evaluate health and environmental risks at sites to develop and select smarter cleanup plans for communities, while still providing long-term human health protections, and supporting opportunities for economic redevelopment. We plan to update our approach to critical mineral recovery by ensuring these valuable commodities are responsibly recovered, where appropriate, at Superfund sites.

 Trump EPA has already piloted early application of these solutions resulting in early successes:

• Aligned with gold-standard science to address risk: In February 2025, EPA oversaw two pilot studies of innovative treatment technologies to streamline the cleanup of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) found in groundwater at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. Within one week, the innovative treatments reduced contaminant levels to EPA-approved tap water standards and discharge permit limits. Complete PFAS destruction occurs within minutes for each of the batches of water treated. Throughout the process, EPA has actively engaged the community through updates on the progress and education open houses at the site. These novel rapid destruction technologies reduce the potential for further environmental release of PFAS compared to traditional technologies. In April 2026, the Trump EPA released updated science-backed guidance for the destruction and disposal of PFAS to reflect the most recent data available, including effective and emerging tools like those used at Hill Air Force Base. 
   
• Used the latest industry innovations to improve cleanups: In 2025, EPA exercised its removal authorities to oversee an efficient cleanup of  Tetrachloroethene, known as PCE, soil contamination from former dry-cleaners at the PCE Southeast Contamination site in downtown York, Nebraska. This in-situ thermal remediation method reduced costs by accelerating the removal of perchloroethylene and trichloroethylene in soil to more quickly protect human health and the environment from these hazardous substances. EPA worked closely with community members to limit impacts on local businesses and residents during the cleanup. From start to finish, this project took a little over two years to reach cleanup goals, compared to an estimate of over 15 years with a more conventional approach.
                                                                                                                
• Align risk assessment approaches with gold-standard science and ensure they address site-specific risks. On June 1, 2026, EPA proposed to lower the cleanup level for lead in residential soil and interior dust at the Silver Bow Creek/Butte, MT Area Superfund Site. Historic mining and smelting operations resulted in contaminated soil, sediment, groundwater and surface water with arsenic and heavy metals, leaving the natural landscape largely devoid of vegetation and wildlife. EPA is also proposing to expand the cleanup boundary by approximately 3,637 acres to include an additional 7,100 homes. This proposal incorporates site-specific conditions to establish protective cleanup levels and prioritize residences with vulnerable populations, including young children and pregnant or nursing mothers. EPA also collaborated with state and local partners to provide multiple layers of protection for children and families and to integrate the updated target blood lead level for a risk based preliminary remediation goal. 

EPA is committed to radical transparency and will share additional success stories demonstrating site-specific cleanup progress on the implementation of the Superfund Solutions initiative on this webpage as well as in the Superfund Accomplishments Report issued quarterly.