United States
                        Environmental Protection
                        Agency
                   Office of
                   Solid Waste and
                   Emergency Response
          Publication 9320.7-04 FS

                November 1990
     &EPA    Closing   the   NPL    Book
                        Under  the  Original  MRS
  Office of Emergency and Remedial Response
  Hazardous Site Evaluation Division (OS - 230)
                                     Quick Reference Fact Sheet
   Since 1982, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been preparing the National Priorities List
(NPL). This list informs the public of uncontrolled hazardous waste sites that warrant further investigation to de-
termine if they pose risks to public health or the environment. Such sites are eligible for long-term "remedial action"
financed under the Trust Fund established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Lia-
bility Act as amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA).
   Sites are placed on the NPL
primarily on the basis of their
scores under EPA's Hazard
Ranking System (HRS) model
developed in 1982. EPAhasnow
revised the HRS in response to
SARA. The revised HRS, which
will become effective late in Feb-
ruary 1991,90 days after its pub-
lication in the Federal Register, is
a more comprehensive and ac-
curate scoring system than the
original HRS and will add new
types of sites to the NPL.

   During 1981-90, 1,301 sites
were proposed to the NPL, most
of them because their HRS scores
wereabovethe28.5Qcut-off. The
remaining sites were proposed
on the basis of one of two mecha-
nisms that do not require an HRS
score of 28.50 or greater:

  • The State has designated a
site as its top priority.
  •  The Agency for Toxic Sub-
stances and Disease Registry has
issued a health advisory that rec-
ommends removingpeople from
the site, and certain other techni-
cal criteria are met.
 EPA proposed 1,301 NPL sites under original HRS
  Sites placed on final NPL
       Federal Facility Sites      (116)
       Others               (1,071)

  Sites remaining on proposed NPL
                    1,207
               m
  Sites deleted from final NPL

  Sites dropped from proposed NPL
               65
      Policy Issues
      Technical Issues
  Sites proposed (1981-1990)
(30)
(35)
       total 1,301
       HRS Score 28.5 or above  (1,259)
       State Top Priority          (38)
       ATSDR Health Advisory      (4)
(November 1, 1990)

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NPL has grown since 1981
    1500-1
                                                              0207)
         1981   1982   1983   1984   1985   1986   1987   1988   1989   1990
                                   Year
  The NPL has grown steadily
over the years. As the original
HRS winds  down, 1,187 sites
are on the final NPL, and 20 are
in proposed status. Final action
will be taken on the proposed
sites before the effective date of
the revised HRS.
  The growth of the NPL is the
result of Superfund's site assess-
ment process, which starts when
a site is identified and entered
into  CERCLIS, EPA's compu-
terized inventory of potential
hazardous waste sites.   EPA
identifies sites through a vari-
ety of methods, including rec-
ords and information provided
by States and handlers of haz-
ardous materials, as well as re-
ports from concerned citizens.
   Superfund's Site Assessment Program closes the gap
   40000 -


   35000 -


Jg 30000 -\
(f)

3 25000 -|
O
QC
111
O 20000 -
"o

2 15000 -
3

   10000 -


    5000


      0
               68.8%
                    Percent of CERCLIS sites needing
                    initial evaluation drops
                                               7.6%
                                         	-^B.
                1981 1982 1983 1984  1985 1986  1987 1988  1989 1990
                               YMF
          Sites in CERCUS

         Total Preliminary
         Assessments
         Completed to Date
                                                                                Total Site Inspections
                                                                                Completed to Date
               1981   1982   1983   1984   1985   1986   1987   1988   1989   1990
                                           Year

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  Next, EPA or the State conducts a preliminary assess-
ment (PA), a low-cost review of existing information to
determine if the site poses a potential hazard. If the PA
shows that the site does not present a potential hazard,
no further remedial action is planned under Superfund.
If the site does present a serious imminent threat, EPA
may use the Trust Fund to take immediate "removal"
action.

  If the PA shows that an actual or potential contamina-
tion problem exists but does not pose  an imminent
threat, EPA will perform a more extensive study called
the site inspection (SI).  The SI involves collecting addi-
tional information to better understand the extent of the
problem at the site, to screen out sites that will not qualify
for the NPL, and to obtain data necessary to calculate an
MRS score for sites which warrant placement on the NPL
and further study. The SI usually includes collection and
analysis of environmental and  waste samples to deter-
mine what substances are present at the site and whether
they are being released. Following the SI, a site can receive
a decision that no further remedial action is planned
under Superfund, or that it will be scored to determine
whether it should be proposed for the NPL.
            Few CERCLIS sites still need initial evaluation
                                                         hitial Evaluation Needed
                    Site Inspection Completed
             No Further Remedial Action Pinned
                Stte Inspection Completed •
                      Decision Pending
                                                                  Preliminary Assessment Completed •
                                                                  No Further Remedial Action Planned
                             She Inspection Needed
             (November 1,1990)
                                                            31,317 of 33,575 (92.4%) sites in CERCLIS
                                                            have received initial evaluation.
    To date, 92 percent of the more than 33,000 sites in
 CERCLIS have received an initial evaluation.  Almost
 half of the sites in CERCLIS have received a "no further
 action" decision.

   In the past, the decision on whether a site should con-
 tinue on for HRS scoring or be dropped from further
 consideration  for the NPL may have been delayed for
 some time after each evaluation step was completed. As
 a result, the program is looking at ways to improve the
 technical decision-making process and reduce the time
 involved in placing sites on the NPL.

  Generally, the site assessment program will follow the
 same steps in  implementing the revised HRS as it did
 with the original HRS, although the information gath-
 ered may differ. Standard operating guidance for PA's,
 Si's, and HRS  packages as well as training sessions are
 being developed to guarantee rapid and consistent appli-
 cation of  the revised HRS.   In addition, a "PreScore"
 computer program will be used to perform the calcula-
 tions required  by the HRS. This allows quick sensitivity
analysis to focus SI sampling on the most important HRS
factors, resulting in more nationally consistent, focused,
and better-quality decisions. Another computer program
will automatically supply data to PreScore on over 300
chemicals. These changes will enable EPA to improve the
quality and timeliness of Superfund's evaluation of thou-
sands of potential hazardous waste sites annually and
place the worst on the NPL.
 For further information, contact:
  Hazardous Site Evaluation Division
  Office of Emergency and Remedial Response
  Mail Code OS-230
  tU», Environmental Protection Agency
  401M Street SW
  Washington, DC 20460
         or
 Superfund Hotline, (800) 424-9346 in the continental
 U.$., or (202) 382-3000 in the Washington, DC area.

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              National Priorities List Sites
                                       1187 FINAL NPL SITES +
                                        20 PROPOSED NPL SITES X
                                       1207 TOTAL NPL SITES
GU-1 +
AK-6+
PR-9+
HI-6X
HI-1 +

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