vvEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
1 Solid Waste And .
Emergency Response
(OS-240)
EPA/540/8-90/010
November 1990
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EPA/540/8-90/010
November 1990
SUPERFUND:
Environmental Progress
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Emergency & Remedial Response
Office of Program Management
Washington, DC 20460
Printed on Recycled Paper
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Additional copies may be obtained from the Public Information Center (PIC), U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, 401 M Street SW, Washington, DC 20460
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Superfund, the Nation's program to clean up uncontrolled hazard-
ous waste sites, is now ten years old. During this time thousands of
actions have been taken to protect people and the environment from
the hazards these sites pose. Some of these actions have been
responses to emergencies such as hazardous waste spills, while
others have been long term actions to clean up contamination that
may have been accumulating for decades.
While Superfund has made many gains in terms of protection of hu-
man health and the environment, to date little attention has been
paid to any measures other than the number of sites deleted from the
National Priorities List. This report explains some of Superfund's
environmental progress in terms of new measures called environ-
mental indicators. These indicators relate to:
1. Controlling Acute Threats to People and the Environment
2. Achieving Long-Term Cleanup Goals for Sites; and
3. Removing Contamination from the Environment.
The following information shows that EPA has indeed made sub-
stantial progress in making these sites safe in the short term, and
clean in the long term.
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Environmental Progress
SUPERFUND — ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRESS
A Snapshot of the Superfund Program
Hazardous waste, improperly disposed over time...
complex chemical combinations.. .contamination that
may affect surface water, soil or groundwater...
properties that change hands leaving indistinct
records... pioneer technology.. .and evolving scientific
knowledge. These are some of the challenges facing the
Environmental Protection Agency as it cleans up
America's abandoned hazardous waste sites.
There are currently about 1200 sites on the National Priorities List (NPL), EPA's
list of the worst hazardous waste sites in the Nation.
EPA or State agen-
cies are working at
each NPL site,
identifying the con-
taminants and the
threats they pose,
estimating the risks
faced by people
and the environ-
ment, designing
remedies, or ac-
tively cleaning up
sites. Each year,
EPA also responds
to several hundred
emergencies—haz-
ardous waste spills
and fires in aban-
WHAT IS THE NATIONAL
PRIORITIES LIST?
Congress directed EPA to apply Superfund monies
to the Nation's most serious hazardous waste sites.-
In response, the Agency developed the Hazard
Ranking System, which evaluates and scores site
threats. Any site that tops the System's cutoff score
joins the National Priorities List. This list, which
encompasses the most serious sites yet discovered,
currently stands at 1,236.
doned industrial buildings, for example—that involve dangerous chemicals.
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Each emergency is unique in its environmental urgency, populations at risk,
chemical mixtures, and physical setting. The combination of the 1,236 NPL sites
and the hundreds of emergencies at non-NPL sites each year creates a cleanup
problem of unprecedented complexity.
The Superfund program is now ten years old and has only recently come to grips
with a challenging array of conflicting expectations for the performance of this
program. The law directs EPA to protect public health by meeting strict cleanup
standards at each site. At the same time EPA must contend with limited time
and money, as well as with State and community acceptance. Prompt and effec-
tive cleanup are expected at all sites on the NPL, using a finite pool of resources.
New treatment technologies must be tried and developed, yet human and eco-
logical health must be guaranteed. And the pressure for faster cleanups remains
constant.
A New Strategy for the Program — Worst Problems at Worst Sites First
In June of 1989, William. K. Reilly, the new Administrator of EPA, commissioned
a Task Force to examine the difficulties experienced by the Superfund program.
The result of this study,
the Superfund Manage-
ment Review, not only
examines many of the
chronic problems en-
cumbering the pro-
gram, but also outlines
a clear new strategy for
Superfund. The strat-
egy emphasizes more use of EPA's enforcement powers to ensure that polluters
pay to clean up the problems they created. It also revitalizes the Agency's ap-
proach to Fund-financed cleanup actions. Reduced to its environmental essence,
the new Superfund mission is "make sites safe, make sites clean, and bring new
technology to bear on the problem." In this way, EPA can work on the "worst
problems at worst sites first." The heart of the new mandate is to streamline and
better focus Superfund on the environmental problems that pose the greatest
threats nationwide.
" make sites safe, make sites clean,
and bring new technology to bear
on the problem.."
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Environmental Progress
EPA's new "worst problems at worst sites first" strategy means a new emphasis
on incremental site cleanups to target attention on highest priority problems
found in three environmental pathways: land, groundwater, and surface water
Environmental Contamination
Surface Water
Contamination
Groundwater
Contamination
lf~r~r~ « ' > Tj FIGURE 1
PIII.IU.I..I.|I,II. i .....in ii.ii.Ju iijiiujjjmijjiimujj.j.-i-j. IUL i AJ. .MJJI a.u» »
(see Figure 1). Instead of concentrating on continuous and complete cleanup of a
few major sites, resources must be apportioned to assure the greatest degree of
public safety at the largest number of sites, while the longer process of total site
cleanup on a national scale steadily moves forward. Thus, deleting a site from
the NPL becomes an increasingly distant goal, as we focus on the more meaning-
ful task of solving immediate problems affecting public health and safety.
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Environmental Indicators — New Measures of Progress
The last several years have seen the emergence of a strong infrastructure in the
Superfund program to enable more efficient and effective cleanups. The program
is making real environmental gains and has developed a new means of portraying
environmental progress. These new measures—Environmental Indicators—have
been developed to illustrate in terms more familiar to the public, tangible im-
provements to the environment brought about by the Superfund program. The
program can now report on three environmental indicators that directly relate to
the Administrator's new strategy for Superfund:
1. Making Sites Safe — Controlling Acute Threats to People and the Environment
2. Making Sites Clean — Achieving Long-Term Cleanup Goals for Sites
3. Bringing Technology to Bear on the Problem — Removing Contamination from
the Environment
To evaluate its pursuit of the "worst problems at worst sites first" strategy, the
Superfund program reviewed the work done between 1980 and 1989 on:
• The approximately
1200 sites on the Na-
tional Priorities List,
and
The condition of the land, ground-
water, and surface water has sub-
stantially improved.
it^tSw-^^^v^^^'-rT;'"3 " i
\&4 *-: *~ :-' - *
• The approximately
1300 additional emer-
gency actions at sites
not on the NPL.
The environmental information gathered on these sites will continue to be
updated on a yearly basis.
Cleanup activities at these sites were performed by EPA, the State, and parties
who had caused the contamination. These activities resulted in measurable envi-
ronmental progress. The condition of the land, groundwater, and surface water
has substantially improved. The information gathered resulted in the following
conclusions.
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Environmental Progress
Progress in Controlling Immediate Threats — Has EPA Made Sites Safe?
• EPA has evaluated over 1200 sites on the National Priorities List for immediate
risks to the public or the environment. To date 356 sites on the NPL have needed
emergency response action, and in every case emergency response actions have
been taken to make these sites safe (see Figure 2).
• EPA performed over 1300 emergency actions at non-NPL sites to make them safe.
• Emergency actions performed at both NPL and non-NPL sites to control immedi-
ate threats to the public health and the environment include:
- Stabilizing hazardous waste to prevent fires and explosions,
- Evacuating and relocating people, to protect them from exposure to hazard-
ous wastes,
Superfund Sites Made Safe or Clean
356 NPL Sites Made Safe
1300 Non-NPL Sites Made Safe
318 NPL Sites Becoming Clean
-J':"!", FIGURE 2
_^.uL,JA^-j—«aLtt_!J2.i.s J
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- Removing, treating, or containing wastes,
- Providing emergency water supplies, and
- Providing site security to keep people away from hazardous sites.
EPA has protected thousands of people through these actions:
- Over 267,000 people supplied with alternative water for their home water
supplies.
- Almost 20,000 people evacuated or relocated to protect them from hazard-
ous substances; 87% have returned to their homes, the rest were perma-
nently relocated.
in
Goals for Permanent Superfund has performed actual
Site Cleanup —Is EPA r J ^ J
Making sites clean? "hands on" work leading to perma-
nent cleanup...
• Every site on the '
NPL has received ««•* vR^^'-- V\,.~-*-\?~-C'-4,*"' *~~'~^> ??-sVU' ^ '»
attention under the -:~>~^-"-. ,~X,w. i\,'^L> <.< ."-S..^^.-'I1*—.^:.\ .iL.:,^ *
Superfund program.
• To date Superfund has completed the field investigations and engineering
studies necessary to start cleanups at over 1000 sites (see Figure 2).
• Superfund has performed actual "hands on" work leading to the permanent
cleanup of 318 NPL sites. This action includes:
- Construction and operation of permanent treatment facilities, incinerators,
and pumping stations, to clean the land, surface water, and groundwater.
- Placing contaminated materials in secure disposal facilities.
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Environmental Progress
- Many of these same sites also had emergency action to control immediate
threats to people and the environment.
• At these 318, sites Superfund has significant work underway on 409 land,
groundwater, and surface water pathways, and of these has completely cleaned
up 82 pathivays.
Using Technology to Remove Contamination from the Environment — Is EPA
Bringing Technology to Bear on the Problem?
• Enormous amounts of contaminated materials have been treated, isolated,
neutralized, or removed from the environment (see Figure 3). Preliminary
counts, where information is available, reveal:
- 9,400,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil and solid waste have been
taken out of the environment and properly disposed—enough to cover
more than 5000 football fields, a foot deep.
- 3,880,000,000 gallons of contaminated groundwater have been treated and
returned to the environment — over 15 gallons for every person in the
United States.
Waste Removed from the Environment
Pathway
Land Surface:
Soil
Solid Waste
Liquid Waste
Groundwater:
Surface Water:
Volumes Addressed
4,130,000 cubic yards
5,270,000 cubic yards
1,000,000,000 gallons
3,880,000,000 gallons
104,000,000 gallons
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FTCIURE 3
JTHjUllE J
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- 1,000,000,000 gallons of liquid wastes have been removed from the soil
and treated
- 104,000,000 gallons of contaminated surface water have been cleaned and
made reusable.
The use of treatment, especially
"innovative" technologies, will
continue to increase.
• Treatment, the most
permanent way to deal
with hazardous waste
problems, was part of
the cleanup in more
than 70 percent of the
NPL site remedies
selected in 1989; in 1987, V~' -. "* ."*; "?' \ " ^ ?",, ^ : «T - \\, ".
treatment was used in
only half of the remedies selected. Treatment technologies include:
- incineration,
- air stripping,
- bioremediation
- pumping and treating ground water, and
- thermal treatment.
• To date, it has been more technically feasible to isolate and contain soils con-
taminated with hazardous substances to prevent contact with people or the
environment. Groundwater and surface water are most often treated to make
them safe for reentry into the environment.
• As we start new cleanups, the use of treatment, especially "innovative" treat-
ment technologies, will continue to increase.
So Where Does the Superfund Program Stand?
Superfund has now reached operating speed, and is starting to show real prog-
ress. Yes, there is more work to do, and more technologies to develop to elimi-
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Environmental Progress
nate the dangers of these wastes. Resources are limited and some sites may take
decades to totally clean up. We now understand more clearly than ever that sites
that have festered 40-50 years won't vanish overnight. The work goes on.
Since final cleanup is a - ~ -,
"• • • protection of public health and
served by our "Worst ^e environment is Superfund rs
First" approach where
the most urgent prob- Jirst gOdl.
lems are dealt with first, '•-";—; -.-<-, . f
and total site cleanups '•"-*• ............ -•
are completed in the
long term. In fact, the Worst First concept for reducing risk to people and the
environment is gaining momentum Agency- wide in all of our environmental
programs. As new sites continue to be added to the NPL, priorities will evolve
and change to reflect relative risks of the sites we encounter. Observers who
measure Superfund's success by the number of sites deleted from the NPL may
be frustrated by this new approach. But protection of public health and the
environment is Superfund's first goal, and that goal is best met by our Worst
Problems At Worst Sites First Strategy. It will become ever more important to
understand and recognize the tremendous amount of incremental work that is
being done by Superfund nationwide in reaching this goal. This report shows
some of the success of this endeavor.
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Environmental Protection
Agency
Information
Cincinnati OH 45268
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