Bookmark This Page

Delicious Google Bookmarks Stumbleupon Digg BlinkList Blogmarks Facebook Ma.gnolia Reddit Twitter Yahoo My Web Livejournal

What Is a Superfund Site and Why Should You Care?

What are so-called Superfunds and why should you care? If the name Love Canal rings any bell, then perhaps you can get a clue as to what Superfund sites represent and how important they are to cleaning up our environment. So-called Superfund sites are named after the Superfund Act of 1980, created by Congress in order to help clean up the growing problem of chemical waste sites. Superfund Sites, then, are chemical waste sites that are deemed to be dangerous and toxic by the federal government. The Superfund Site Act of 1980 was proposed in order to clean up so-called chemical disaster sites, and the act gave the responsibility for cleaning up chemical wastes to the companies deemed responsible for them.

Probably the most dangerous kind of chemical dump waste sites are those that contain toxic materials. When the Superfund put pressure on companies to clean up certain sties, many of the operators of these sites simply declared bankruptcy in the face of overwhelming costs for clean up. The Superfund site initiated a major federal clean up program that aimed to clean up many of these abandoned chemical waste dumps. Enacting a tax on different chemical raw materials paid for this piece of important legislation. This helped to pay the cost for the work of identifying many different Superfund sites as well as to help ensure the protection of the groundwater that may surround the Superfund sites.

How has the Superfund site worked thus far? The Superfund site legislation has helped identify many hundreds of Superfund sites. To this date, over 40,000 sites have been deemed serous enough to be labeled Superfund sites. Over the years, the Environmental Protection Agency has deemed only about 28,000 of these Superfund sites as serious enough to still retain their Superfund site status. These sites are than shuffled to another category known as the 'no further removal action planned.' However, currently there are

still an estimated number of over 12,000 Superfund sites that are active across the United States. This means that there are still many seriously contaminated sites across the United States. It is interesting to note that many of the most serious Superfund sites are located near military bases. Many analysts observe that is probably the result of the irresponsible discard of toxic materials by the U.S. military, as evidenced by the preponderance of toxic Superfund sites outside of many U.S. military bases.

As of 1999, roughly 1,372 Superfund sites have been identified as especially dangerous and toxic and have been added to the NPL. Part of the trouble with Superfund sites is the fact that they are so expensive to clean up. Superfund sites that have been cleaned up since the original Superfund site was enacted in 1980 have been few in relation to all of the Superfund sites that need attention. Roughly 520 Superfund sites have received all of the clean up attention they require.

Over the years, the Environmental Protection Agency has developed many technological means for cleaning up Superfund sites. Many different technologies have been created in order to produce faster and more efficient clean up processes for these Superfund sites.

Much of this Superfund site technology has to do with very sophisticated technology. The clean up process of the Superfund sites have also created many different remediation companies that have emerged in order to clean up Superfund sites.

Although the Superfund Site Act has been somewhat effective, there are many critics to the Superfund site act who argue that it has not been effective enough. The high costs of clean up coupled with the slow progress of the Superfund site act has caused many to become skeptical about the real accomplishment of the Superfund act.