DALLAS, TEXAS (Sept. 8, 2023) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced two sites in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, are included in the most recent update to the Superfund National Priorities List, a list of known sites throughout the United States and its territories where releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants pose significant threats to human health and the environmental. EPA is proposing to add the Exide Baton Rouge site to the National Priorities List, and finalizing the Capitol Lakes site to the list.
“Residents of heavily industrialized communities like Baton Rouge should not have to live with higher levels of water, air and soil contamination,” said Regional Administrator Dr. Earthea Nance. “With historic levels of funding through the Biden-Harris Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, sites like Capitol Lakes and Exide Baton Rouge are getting the focus they deserve to prevent harms to people’s health and the environment.”
The Capitol Lakes site encompasses three lakes in Baton Rouge, Louisiana—North Lake, South Lake, and East Lake—on 60 acres next to the Capitol Building and the Governor’s Mansion. Starting in the 1970s, sediments and fish tissue from the lakes have shown contamination from Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs), which can cause liver damage and skin conditions. Other contaminants of concern include arsenic, mercury and lead. The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality referred the site to EPA in 2021. A fishing advisory remains in effect for the site to warn residents against consuming fish from the lakes.
The Exide Baton Rouge site is a former secondary lead smelter and refinery. The proposed National Priorities List site covers 33 acres next to Baton Rouge Bayou. High concentrations of antimony, arsenic, lead, manganese and zinc have been found in groundwater and soils on the site, with unlined waste piles and open surface impoundments contributing to discharges of contaminated ground and surface water. An onsite system is in place to collect and treat contaminated leachate. The state of Louisiana referred the site to EPA to ensure continued operation of the wastewater treatment system.
EPA is adding the following sites to the National Priorities List:
- Federated Metals Corp Whiting in Hammond, Indiana.
- Capitol Lakes in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
- Fansteel Metals/FMRI in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
EPA is proposing to add the following sites to the National Priorities List:
- Former Exide Technologies Laureldale in Laureldale, Pennsylvania.
- Acme Steel Coke Plant in Chicago, Illinois.
- Exide Baton Rouge in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
- Lot 46 Valley Gardens TCE in Des Moines, Iowa.
Superfund sites disproportionately affect overburdened and underserved communities. All the sites being added or proposed to be added to the National Priorities List are in communities with potential environmental justice concerns based on income, demographic, education, linguistic, and life expectancy data from EJSCREEN. By adding sites to the National Priorities List, EPA is delivering protections to communities that need it the most.
Nationally there are thousands of contaminated sites, from landfills, to processing plants, to manufacturing facilities, due to hazardous waste being dumped, left out in the open, or otherwise improperly managed. The historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law accelerates EPA’s work to clean up this pollution with a $3.5 billion investment in the Superfund Remedial Program. The law also reinstates the Superfund chemical excise taxes, making it one of the largest investments in American history to address legacy pollution.
EPA typically proposes sites to the National Priorities List based on a scientific determination of risks to people and the environment, consistent with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan. The National Contingency Plan also allows each State to designate a single site as its top priority to be listed on the National Priorities List, without the need to apply a scientific determination. The State of Oklahoma is designating the Fansteel Metals/FMRI site its top-priority site.
Before EPA adds a site to the National Priorities List, a site must meet EPA’s requirements and be proposed for addition to the list in the Federal Register, subject to a 60-day public comment period. EPA will add the site to the National Priorities List if it continues to meet the listing requirements after the public comment period closes and the agency has responded to any comments.
Background:
The National Priorities List includes the nation’s most serious uncontrolled or abandoned releases of contamination. This list serves as the basis for prioritizing EPA Superfund cleanup funding and enforcement actions. Only releases at non-federal sites included on the National Priorities List are eligible to receive federal funding for long-term, permanent cleanup.
Superfund cleanups provide health and economic benefits to communities. The program is credited for significant reductions in both birth defects and blood-lead levels among children living near sites, and research has shown residential property values increase up to 24 percent within three miles of sites after cleanup.
Since taking office, the Biden-Harris Administration has followed through on updating the National Priorities List twice a year, as opposed to once per year. Today’s announcement is the second time EPA is updating the National Priorities List in 2023.
For information about Superfund and the National Priorities List, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/superfund.
For Federal Register notices and supporting documents for the National Priorities List and proposed sites, please visit:
New Proposed and New Superfund National Priorities List Sites
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