Tag: medical incinerator

For Immediate Release: June 12, 2020
Media Contact:   Soledad Calvino, 415-972-3512, [email protected]

LOS ANGELES —The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the annual Superfund Accomplishments Report documenting national achievements in the Superfund program during FY 2019. The Superfund program addresses the nation’s most contaminated sites and is a key priority for the Trump Administration. The report also documents improvements to the program as a result of the Superfund Task Force work under EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler.

“As we celebrate 50 years of EPA’s commitment to protecting human health and the environment, we can take pride in the last 40 years that the Superfund program has contributed to that success,” said EPA Administrator, Andrew Wheeler. “The Trump Administration is proud to showcase all we have achieved to clean up contaminated sites, protect our communities, and turn these spaces into economic and recreational assets for generations to come.”

“Land cleanup and revitalization via the Superfund program is a top priority for the EPA,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator John Busterud. “The Operating Industries Inc. landfill site in Monterey Park, California, is a great example of what can be accomplished when a community reclaims and reuses contaminated land, transforming it into a space for people to shop and dine.”

The FY 2019 report highlights achievements to improve site cleanups, protect health, revitalize our communities, innovate through science and technology, and engage communities. Across America, communities continue to experience the benefits of EPA’s Superfund program.

EPA is returning contaminated lands to long-term sustainable and productive reuse throughout the Pacific Southwest. In Los Angeles County, EPA worked with local partners to transform the Operating Industries Inc. Landfill into a 500,000-square-foot retail center. The former landfill is a 190-acre site located in Monterey Park, about 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Landfilling operations at the site took place from 1948 to 1984. The retail center fits into the area’s mixed general commercial/industrial and residential land use and small pockets of open space.

Other key achievements in the report include:

• Finishing the job by deleting all or part of 27 sites from the Superfund’s National Priorities List (NPL), the largest number of deletions in a single year since 2001.
• Targeting sites for the Administrator’s immediate and intense attention, using the Administrator’s Emphasis List to resolve issues delaying cleanups and spur action at sites, that in many cases have been waiting idle amid uncertainty for years.
• Completing 233 removal actions to address imminent and substantial threats to human health and the environment.
• Securing more than $570 million from Potentially Responsible Parties to clean up Superfund sites and reimburse the Agency more than $280 million.
• Celebrating 20 years of redeveloping more than 1,000 Superfund sites that now support 9,180 businesses generating $58.3 billion in sales and employing more than 208,400 people earning a combined income of more than $14.4 billion.
• Expanding the charge for the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council to identify additional opportunities for EPA to engage with communities, expedite cleanups and return sites to productive use.

Read the full report here:  https://semspub.epa.gov/src/document/HQ/100002479

Additional information about EPA’s Superfund program can be read here: https://www.epa.gov/superfund

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