EPA to Review Effectiveness of Cleanups at 14 Privately-Owned California Superfund Sites in 2024
SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will perform comprehensive five-year reviews this year of 14 National Priorities List Superfund privately-owned sites in California where cleanup remedies have been implemented. The sites will undergo a legally required review to ensure that previous remediation efforts continue to protect public health and the environment. Once the five-year reviews are complete, the findings will be posted to each Superfund site’s web page.
“Reviewing the cleanup work that has occurred at these Superfund sites across California is critical to ensuring that public health and the environment are protected,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Superfund and Emergency Management Division Director Mike Montgomery. “These reviews also serve as important ways to deliver information to the public about Superfund sites where pollution remains and additional work could be needed.”
The California privately-owned Superfund sites where EPA will conduct five-year reviews in 2024 are:
- Advanced Micro Devices (Building 915) in Sunnyvale
- Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation South San Jose Plant
- Industrial Waste Processing in Fresno
- Middlefield-Ellis-Whisman (MEW) Study Area in Mountain View, which comprises three Superfund sites: the Fairchild Semiconductor Corp.-Mountain View site, the Raytheon Company site, and the Intel Corp.-Mountain View site as well as portions of the Naval Air Station Moffett Field Superfund site.
- Palos Verdes Shelf portion of the Montrose Chemical Corp. site in Torrance
- Teledyne and Spectra-Physics sites in Mountain View (joint cleanup and review)
- Triple Site in Sunnyvale, which comprises the following Superfund sites: the Advanced Micro Devices 901-902 Thompson Place site, the TRW Microwave site, and the Signetics site. The Signetics site is not part of the five-year review because it is not on the National Priorities List.
- Valley Wood Preserving, Inc. in Turlock
- Waste Disposal, Inc. in Santa Fe Springs
Background
Throughout the process of designing and constructing a cleanup at a hazardous waste site, EPA's primary goal is to make sure the remedy will be protective of public health and the environment. At many sites, where the remedy has been constructed, EPA continues to ensure it remains protective by requiring reviews of cleanups every five years. It is important for EPA to regularly check on these sites to ensure the remedy is working properly. These reviews identify issues (if any) that may affect the protectiveness of the constructed remedy and, if necessary, recommend action(s) necessary to address them.
There are many phases of the Superfund cleanup process including considering future use and redevelopment at sites and conducting post cleanup monitoring of sites. EPA must ensure the remedy is protective of public health and the environment and any redevelopment will uphold the protectiveness of the remedy into the future.
The Superfund program, a federal program established by Congress in 1980, investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country and endeavors to facilitate activities to return them to productive use. In total, there are 135 Superfund sites across the EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region.
Learn more about Superfund and other cleanup sites in the Pacific Southwest.
Learn more about EPA's Superfund program.
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