Source: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com, September 7, 2016
By: John Siciliano
The Environmental Protection Agency is setting its sights on dry cleaners as part its new list of 18 contaminated cleanup sites.
The EPA announced Wednesday that it is adding 10 waste sites under its Superfund program’s National Priorities List, which is set up to deal with long-term waste issues across the country. Mines and former chemical factories typify sites that are normally included under the program.
But the agency is also proposing to add eight hazardous waste sites to the program that aren’t so typical, like the site of a former Custom Cleaners dry cleaning business in Memphis, Tenn. Others include contamination from a variety of sources, including manufacturing, mining and battery recycling.
The EPA said it adds sites to the list when the “mismanagement of contamination threatens public health and the environment.” It enlists the Superfund when states or Native American tribes ask for help, or if the EPA finds contamination on its own.
Recently the EPA has been focusing on sites that have been recently shut down, instead of the big cleanup projects at abandoned facilities that the Superfund has become known for. Half of the 18 sites the EPA is adding or proposing to add to the list were in operation in the last 20 years.