Superfund Sites facts

While investigating facts about Superfund Sites In Nj and Superfund Sites In Texas, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Bacteria which has evolved to be able to survive in the highly toxic Berkeley Pit superfund site produces a chemical compound not found anywhere else with anticancer potential.

how many superfund sites are there?

The Superfund program was created to pay for the clean up of hazardous waste sites where the polluter was unable to be identified or was unable to pay. Polluters later identified were taken to court, but initial funding for the program came from a tax on chemical and petroleum industries.

What state has the most superfund sites?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what are epa superfund sites. Here are 17 of the best facts about Superfund Sites Map and Superfund Sites In California I managed to collect.

what are superfund sites?

1. David Hahn, a former Boy Scout who built a nuclear reactor out of household items, and created a superfund site at his mother’s house.

2. Part of Cuyahoga National Park in Ohio was an EPA Superfund site up until 2012. Ford, 3M, Chrysler and Waste Management of Ohio were all held liable for the pollution.

3. A man named David Hahn tried to make a homemade nuclear breeder reactor in his backyard shed. Though the reactor never reached critical mass, it irradiated his backyard and his mother's property would be a Superfund cleanup site for 10 months.

4. The village of Sauget, IL was founded so companies could avoid environmental regulations, and today, unsurprisingly, has a massive superfund site that has cost the EPA tens of millions.

5. A pharmacist would not leave the town of Picher, Ok even after it was declared part of a Superfund site and rocked by an EF4 tornado. He stayed because he loved his job so much. When he died there were less than 20 people still living in Picher.

6. A Superfund dump site in Missouri that contains radioactive waste from the Manhattan Project that is near a smoldering underground fire, is on a major fault line and sits iin the Ohio River flood plain.

7. David Hahn, the Nuclear Boy Scout, who at 17 tried to build a nuclear reactor in his backyard scrapped together from household products, leading to his house being declared a Superfund site.

8. There are 20 EPA Superfund sites across the United States, areas that have seen dangerous environmental damage with ongoing clean up efforts.

9. A history professor helped a landfill be granted historic landmark status due to its pioneering waste disposal method. But that landfill was also a EPA Superfund site. Doubts about whether such a site should remain a historic landmark faded after 9/11 occurred.

10. New Jersey has 113 active Superfund sites

Why are there so many superfund sites in nj?

You can easily fact check why are superfund sites important by examining the linked well-known sources.

Silicon Valley's Santa Clara County has 23 active Superfund sites, more than any other county in the United States.

The United States EPA has a list of Superfund sites where hazardous waste dumped by companies like Ford, Monsanto, Dow Chemical, AMD, Phillips, Lockheed Martin, and much more have been documented. Many sites like the Love Canal, and the Exxon Valdez disaster are why the EPA exist today. - source

The EPA's website provides Superfund Site location information so you can see how close you live to a Superfund Site. - source

A neighborhood known as Love Canal was contaminated by toxic waste and became the first Superfund site.

Starting in 2001, taxpayers pay for cleaning of Superfund sites (polluted locations, typically by private businesses, requiring a long-term response to clean up hazardous material contaminations) :-( - source