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) ------- 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 ------- 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. ------- 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 + ------- |