National Priorities List of Superfund sites, 2015
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The National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund contains areas identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) as uncontrolled or abandoned waste sites. The EPA updates the National Priorities List once per year and scores each site for its potential health or environmental effects. Sites near the top of the list receive higher priority. For a potential contaminated site to receive federal cleanup funds from the Superfund Trust Fund, the area must be placed on the National Priorities List.[1]
Background
- See also: Superfund
In 1980, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), which gave power to the federal government to identify sites as abandoned or uncontrolled waste sites and to collect fines from potentially liable site owners and operators. The law established the Superfund program, a federal system administered by the EPA to manage these sites. The EPA established the National Priorities List, a collection of contaminated sites ranked by the EPA based on the level of contamination and potential environmental or health risks.[2]
Superfund sites by state
- See also: State environmental policy
Superfund sites are added and removed from the National Priorities List on an ongoing basis depending on the identification of potential sites and the level of cleanup involved at existing sites. Some potential sites are given a preliminary risk assessment but are not inspected. Some sites on the list are inspected before any cleanup work has commenced.
Below is a list of the top ten states ranked by number of Superfund sites as of February 2015.
| Ten states with the most Superfund sites | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rank | State | Number of Superfund sites |
| 1 | New Jersey | 114 |
| 2 | California | 97 |
| 3 | Pennsylvania | 95 |
| 4 | New York | 85 |
| 5 | Michigan | 65 |
| 6 | Florida | 53 |
| 7 | Washington and Texas | 50 |
| 8 | Illinois | 43 |
| 9 | North Carolina | 39 |
| 10 | Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio | 37 |
| Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Final National Priorities List (NPL) Sites - by State (as of February 9, 2015)," February 9, 2015 |
Below is a list of the ten states with the fewest number of Superfund sites as of February 2015.
| States with the fewest Superfund sites | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rank | State | Number of Superfund sites |
| 1 | North Dakota | 0 |
| 2 | Nevada and South Dakota | 1 |
| 3 | Hawaii | 3 |
| 4 | Alaska and Idaho | 6 |
| 5 | Oklahoma | 7 |
| 6 | Mississippi | 8 |
| 7 | West Virginia | 9 |
| 8 | Louisiana | 10 |
| 9 | Rhode Island and Vermont | 12 |
| 10 | Oregon | 13 |
| Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, "Final National Priorities List (NPL) Sites - by State (as of February 9, 2015)," February 9, 2015 |