What is a Superfund Site and Why Should You Care?
The tragedy of Love Canal cannot be over emphasized.
In American history, Love Canal is one of the most appalling environmental tragedies.
But that's not the most disturbing fact.
What is worse is that it cannot be regarded as an isolated event.
It could happen again--anywhere in this country--unless we move expeditiously to prevent it.
The Superfund Act of 1980 was drawn up by Congress to help clean up the ever-growing problem of chemical waste sites and the danger to the surrounding ground water.
Superfund sites are chemical waste sites that are deemed to be toxic and dangerous by the federal government.
The Act ensures that companies responsible for cleaning up the waste chemicals do a good job.
Toxic materials dumpsites are probably the most dangerous kind of chemical dumpsites.
In face of the escalating costs of clean up, many operators of these sites declared bankruptcy when the Superfund puts pressure on them to do their job.
The Superfund started a major federal clean up program that aimed to clean up many of these abandoned chemical waste dumps.
Tax imposed on different chemical raw material paid for this legislation.
It also helped to pay for the work on identification of the many different Superfund sites.
Over 40,000 sites have been deemed serious enough to be labeled Superfund sites.
Over the years however, the Environmental Protection Agency has reduced the number to 28,000.
Those removed from this status are then shuffled to another category known as the 'No Further Removal Action Planned'.
Today there still remains over 12,000 Superfund sites that are active across the United States.
It is ironic to note that many of the most serious Superfund sites are located near military bases.
Analysts observe that this is probably due to the irresponsible discard of toxic materials by the U.
S.
military.
Since 1999 about 1,372 Superfund sites have been identified as especially dangerous and toxic and so have been added to the NPL.
The major problem is the great cost needed to clean up these Superfund sites.
Those 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 been cleaned.
Over the years, the Environmental Protection Agency has developed many different technologies to produce faster and more efficient results in the clean up process.
Very sophisticated technology has been adopted for this and this leads to the setting up of different remediation companies.
Although some think that The Superfund Act has been effective, there are others who insist that it has not been effective enough.
The high cost of clean up coupled with the slow progress has caused many to become skeptical about the real efficiency of the Superfund Act.
In American history, Love Canal is one of the most appalling environmental tragedies.
But that's not the most disturbing fact.
What is worse is that it cannot be regarded as an isolated event.
It could happen again--anywhere in this country--unless we move expeditiously to prevent it.
The Superfund Act of 1980 was drawn up by Congress to help clean up the ever-growing problem of chemical waste sites and the danger to the surrounding ground water.
Superfund sites are chemical waste sites that are deemed to be toxic and dangerous by the federal government.
The Act ensures that companies responsible for cleaning up the waste chemicals do a good job.
Toxic materials dumpsites are probably the most dangerous kind of chemical dumpsites.
In face of the escalating costs of clean up, many operators of these sites declared bankruptcy when the Superfund puts pressure on them to do their job.
The Superfund started a major federal clean up program that aimed to clean up many of these abandoned chemical waste dumps.
Tax imposed on different chemical raw material paid for this legislation.
It also helped to pay for the work on identification of the many different Superfund sites.
Over 40,000 sites have been deemed serious enough to be labeled Superfund sites.
Over the years however, the Environmental Protection Agency has reduced the number to 28,000.
Those removed from this status are then shuffled to another category known as the 'No Further Removal Action Planned'.
Today there still remains over 12,000 Superfund sites that are active across the United States.
It is ironic to note that many of the most serious Superfund sites are located near military bases.
Analysts observe that this is probably due to the irresponsible discard of toxic materials by the U.
S.
military.
Since 1999 about 1,372 Superfund sites have been identified as especially dangerous and toxic and so have been added to the NPL.
The major problem is the great cost needed to clean up these Superfund sites.
Those 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 been cleaned.
Over the years, the Environmental Protection Agency has developed many different technologies to produce faster and more efficient results in the clean up process.
Very sophisticated technology has been adopted for this and this leads to the setting up of different remediation companies.
Although some think that The Superfund Act has been effective, there are others who insist that it has not been effective enough.
The high cost of clean up coupled with the slow progress has caused many to become skeptical about the real efficiency of the Superfund Act.
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