The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it will conduct comprehensive reviews of cleanup work at nine National Priorities List Superfund sites across Indiana this year.
Each site will undergo a five-year review to ensure that ongoing or completed remediation efforts continue to protect public health and the environment. Upon completion, a report for each site will be available online on the respective site's website.
"As required by the Superfund law, five-year reviews are a critical checkpoint to verify that completed cleanups are still doing their job—protecting people, drinking water, and ecosystems—and to course-correct if new data or site conditions warrant action," said EPA Region 5 Administrator Anne Vogel. "We will conduct these reviews transparently and share the results so residents can be assured that EPA is maintaining strong, science-based oversight."
The EPA said that five-year reviews are generally required when hazardous substances remain on site above levels that permit unlimited use and unrestricted exposure. The agency retains responsibility for determining whether the remedy remains protective of human health and the environment.
The Superfund program was established by Congress in 1980 as a federal initiative to investigate and clean up complex, uncontrolled, or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the United States. The EPA aims to facilitate activities that return these sites to productive use, according to the official roster page.
