The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday announced $1 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law will go towards implementing cleanup efforts across a number of hazardous waste sites across the country. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday announced $1 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law will go towards implementing hazardous waste cleanup efforts

  • There are thousands of designated Superfund sites across the country, many of which are contaminated with lead, asbestos, dioxin, radiation or other chemicals 

  • The $1 billion announced Friday is the first wave of a cumulative $3.5 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law that will go towards cleanup efforts

  • The first allocation will aid 49 previously unfunded projects across nearly two dozen states, plus Puerto Rico

The federal Superfund law, formally known as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), gives the EPA authority to investigate and rid an area of toxic or harmful substances. Locations in need of such cleanup are referred to as “Superfund” sites. 

There are thousands of designated Superfund sites across the country, many of which are contaminated with lead, asbestos, dioxin, radiation or other chemicals. 

The $1 billion announced Friday is the first wave of a cumulative $3.5 billion from the bipartisan infrastructure law that will go towards cleanup efforts at numerous Superfund sites. The first allocation will aid 49 previously unfunded projects, including the 30-acre Scovill Industrial Landfill in Connecticut. 

“For years, the Scovill Industrial Landfill in Waterbury has posed a risk of contamination to residents nearby,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., wrote of the effort. “This polluted former industrial site remains a concern, and I am proud that the EPA is using funds from the recently enacted bipartisan infrastructure package to take action in protecting the health of communities who live near these polluted sites.”

A portion of the property, which was used as a dumping ground for ash, cinders, debris and other wastes in the mid-1900s, was set to become a senior housing complex before harmful industrial waste was found in the soil.

The site was placed on the federal government’s National Priorities List over two decades ago. The list offers EPA officials guidance on which projects should take priority in cleanup efforts. 

"Approximately 60 percent of the sites to receive funding for new cleanup projects are in historically underserved communities,” EPA administrator Michael Regan wrote in a statement. “Communities living near many of the most serious uncontrolled or abandoned releases of contamination will finally get the protections they deserve."

Black and Hispanic Americans are disproportionately exposed to hazards from toxic waste, as over 25% live within three miles of a Superfund site, per government data. 

The 49 sites that will receive funding this round span nearly two dozen states, plus Puerto Rico. 

Those projects include: groundwater decontamination at the Anodyne, Inc. Superfund site in the Sunshine State Industrial Park near Miami, Florida; addressing exposure to mine waste at the Argonaut Mine Superfund site in Jackson, California and final cleanup at the Ram Leather Care Superfund site in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Regan traveled to another site – the Clearview Landfill – in Pennsylvania to announce the funding on Friday, saying the new effort will “help accelerate the cleanup of dozens of sites” nationwide.

“This funding will clear the backlog of cleanup projects that has been growing since 2015, with some of these projects waiting for more than four years for funding,” Regan added. “These cleanup projects will make a visible and lasting difference in our communities plagued by decades of pollution.”

Pennsylvania will receive $38.7 million for three projects across the state, according to a release from the governor’s office.