The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it will conduct comprehensive reviews of cleanup work at four National Priorities List Superfund sites across Illinois 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. After the reviews are completed, reports will be made available online on each 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. We will conduct these reviews transparently and share the results so residents can be assured that EPA is maintaining strong, science-based oversight," according to EPA Region 5 Administrator Anne Vogel.
The EPA said it will conduct five-year reviews for Sangamo Electric Dump/Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge in Carterville, Ottawa Radiation Areas in Ottawa, Beloit Corp. in Rockton, and Yeoman Creek Landfill in Waukegan. The agency provided web links with detailed information on each site's status, previous assessments, and cleanup activities.
Five-year reviews are generally required when hazardous substances remain on site above levels that permit unlimited use and unrestricted exposure. These reviews allow evaluation of the implementation and performance of a remedy to determine whether it remains protective of human health and the environment. The EPA retains responsibility for determining the protectiveness of the remedy.
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 across the country. More information about these efforts is available according to the official roster page.
