The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it will conduct comprehensive reviews of cleanup work at 11 National Priorities List Superfund sites across Ohio 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 its respective 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," EPA Region 5 Administrator Anne Vogel said. "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 process allows for evaluation of the implementation and performance of remedies to determine whether they remain protective of human health and the environment. The agency retains responsibility for determining the protectiveness of these remedies.
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 country. The EPA works to facilitate activities aimed at returning these sites to productive use, according to the official roster page.
