The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is performing extensive audits of the completed cleanup work at more than a dozen Superfund sites in New England, the agency announced recently.
EPA officials will conduct legally required inspections of the remediation work completed to date at 14 National Priority List (NPL) Superfund sites, including three federal facilities, the agency announced Jan. 19. The inspections are part of the legally required Five-Year Review to make sure previous efforts continue to protect people and the environment.
"By completing reviews of the cleanups every five years, EPA fulfills its duty to remain vigilant so that these communities continue to be protected," EPA New England Acting Regional Administrator Deb Szaro said in the announcement.
The sites to be inspected include Auburn Road Landfil (Londonderry), Beede Waste Oil (Plaistow) and Dover Municipal Landfill (Dover) in New Hampshire; Gallup's Quarry (Plainfield) and Kellogg-Deering Well Field (Norway) in Connecticut; O'Connor Co. (Augusta), Union Chemical Co. (South Hope) and Winthrop Landfill (Winthrop), in Maine; and Peterson/Puritan, Inc. (Lincoln/Cumberland), in Rhode Island, according to the EPA.
Federal facilities include Hanscom Field/Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, Massachusetts; Natick Laboratory Army Research, Development and Engineering Center in Natick, Massachusetts; and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, according to the EPA.
In addition, the Superfund sites Fletchers Paint Works & Storage in Milford, New Hampshire, and Shpack Landfill of Norton/Attleboro, Massachusetts will have reviews begin in 2022 and completed in 2023.
The Superfund program, established by Congress in 1980, "investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country and endeavors to facilitate activities to return them to productive use," the EPA states. There are 123 Superfund sites across New England, according to the EPA.
"Ensuring completed Superfund site cleanup work remains protective of human health and the environment is a priority for EPA," Szaro said in the announcement.
