EPA releases Superfund site priority list

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday unveiled a list of Superfund sites overdue for immediate clean-up.

A Superfund task force at the agency recommended quick clean-up operations at 21 sites around the country, stretching from New Hampshire to California. The sites are due for “immediate and intense action” to address potential public health and environmental risks, the agency said.

“By elevating these sites we are sending a message that EPA is, in fact, restoring its Superfund program to its rightful place at the center of the Agency’s mission,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in a statement.

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“Getting toxic land sites cleaned up and revitalized is of the utmost importance to the communities across the country that are affected by these sites,” he said.

Accelerating clean-up of Superfund sites has been one of Pruitt’s top goals at the EPA.

Earlier this year, he established a task force to look at the Superfund program, which focuses on cleaning up sites contaminated by hazardous waste.

A memo Pruitt issued in July required officials to take quick action at the most toxic Superfund sites and those that could be redeveloped quickly. He has aimed to get sites off the National Priority List, an EPA accounting of 1,300 sites around the country that require clean-up.

The list released by the EPA on Friday identifies sites “requiring timely resolution of specific issues to expedite cleanup and redevelopment efforts.” The list will change as conditions improve at the sites, the EPA said, though inclusion on the list doesn’t mean the sites will receive additional funding for clean-up efforts.