EPA clearing Superfund contamination sites

The federal Environmental Protection Agency was busy this year deleting contaminated sites from the national Superfund list, including a former Southington landfill now deemed safe.

In all, 22 sites were removed from the Superfund list — the most taken off in 13 years.

“Under President Trump, EPA is deleting Superfund sites from the National Priorities List at the fastest pace in more than a decade,” said EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler.

“This remarkable accomplishment is proof that cleaning up contaminated lands and returning them to safe and productive use is a top priority of the Trump EPA,” Wheeler said in a news release.

The EPA recently completed reviews on four other Connecticut Superfund sites — in Naugatuck, Beacon Falls, Barkhamsted and Canterbury — and determined Superfund status should continue, which means further cleanup work and monitoring, and and land use restrictions stay in place.

Environmentalists are wary of the EPA’s rush to delete Superfund sites and have expressed concern that a desire for redevelopment and new taxes could outweigh public protection.

Betsey Wingfield, an air and land management bureau chief for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said her agency agreed with removing the Southington landfill from the Superfund list.

“EPA consulted us and we agreed with full deletion,” Wingfield said.

Some state officials privately said the EPA, at least so far, has been deleting low hanging fruit — old sites in which cleanup work was essentially finished during former President Barack Obama’s administration.

“The (EPA) administration was encouraged to clear the books,” Wingfield said.

Other sites removed from the list include a former chemical plant in Maine, an oil pit in Florida, a manufacturing plant in Massachusetts and a smelting operation in Utah.

Superfund status is the most extreme red flag that can be placed on property and draws federal intervention — and often dollars — to monitor the site, clean up contamination and protect the public from exposure.

It usually comes with deed restrictions that limit what can be built on the property, such as a ban on residential buildings.

The Trump Administration has made deletions from the Superfund program a top priority. The EPA last year created a Superfund Task Force charged with recommending sites for removal, and to promote redevelopment.

“By redeveloping Superfund sites, communities are able to reuse thousands of acres of formerly contaminated land, often strengthening local economies,” the EPA said.

A total of 1,345 sites remain on the Superfund list, with 14 located in Connecticut.

Four Connecticut Superfund sites were reviewed this year by the EPA and those sites will remain on the Superfund list, which means continued monitoring and oversight.

The sites are the former Laurel Park Landfill, a 35-acre parcel in Naugatuck, the Yaworski Waste Lagoon in Canterbury, the former Barkhamsted-New Hartford landfill and the former Beacon Heights Landfill in Beacon Falls.

John Senn, a spokesman for EPA’s New England region, said the Connecticut sites reviewed are all former landfills and the most significant component of the cleanup is the landfill cover or cap.

“The reviews completed at these sites concluded that the remedies are functioning as designed and thus are still protective,” Senn said.

A review is required when hazardous substances remain at a site above acceptable levels, Senn added.

Wingfield said the goal is to reuse Superfund sites when possible and pointed to the former Raymark property in Stratford as a prime example of how polluted property can be returned to the tax rolls. A part of that site is now a shopping center.

“It’s a prime piece of real estate,” Wingfield said of the Stratford property. “They are still working on other units.”

Other portions of the Raymark site remain on the Superfund list. Raymark sold brakes and clutches from about 1919 through 1989.