News Releases from Region 07

EPA Proposes to Add Caney Residential Yards Superfund Site in Caney, Kansas, to Superfund's National Priorities List

Environmental News

(Lenexa, Kan., Oct. 30, 2019) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing the addition of the Caney Residential Yards Superfund Site in Caney, Kansas, to the federal Superfund National Priorities List (NPL). An NPL listing notifies the public that EPA believes a site requires further study and cleanup under EPA's Superfund program.

The site is comprised of lead contamination of residential yards as a result of local smelting operations that date back to about a century ago.

In recent years, sampling by EPA and Kansas Department of Health and Environment has identified a number of residential properties where soils contain more than 400 parts per million (ppm) of lead, which is considered EPA’s action level for removal.

“Protecting communities from the toxic effects of lead exposure is one of EPA’s highest priorities,” said EPA Region 7 Administrator Jim Gulliford. “By placing the Caney Residential Yards Site on the National Priorities List, EPA will build on the work conducted by the Agency and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to reduce lead exposure in the community.”

Background

The NPL includes the nation’s most serious uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites. The list serves as the basis for prioritizing EPA Superfund cleanup funding and enforcement actions. Only sites on the NPL are eligible to receive federal funding for long-term, permanent cleanup.

EPA initiates Superfund involvement at sites when states, tribes or communities ask for the Agency’s help or when the Agency finds contamination during its own investigations. Sites are deleted from the NPL once the EPA completes all response actions and achieves all cleanup objectives. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), which established the Superfund program, requires EPA to update the NPL annually.

The Superfund program has been providing important health benefits to communities across the country for more than 35 years.

Superfund cleanups also strengthen local economies. Data collected through 2017 shows that at 487 Superfund sites in reuse, approximately 6,600 businesses generated $43.6 billion in sales and employed 156,000 people who earned a combined income of $11.2 billion.

The NPL is one focus area of the 2017 Superfund Task Force Recommendations to improve and revitalize the Superfund program. On July 23, 2018, EPA released the Superfund Task Force 2018 Recommendations Update.

• The Superfund Task Force Recommendations can be viewed online.
• For Federal Register notices and supporting documents for the final and proposed sites, visit EPA’s website.
• Learn more about Superfund and the NPL.

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