Superfund areas have contaminated water, air, soil, and/or living organisms. Some areas are being monitored, some have been cleaned up to the best of our abilities, some have no intervention due to lack of funds/etc. Some of these areas aren’t well contained and still leach into surrounding air/soil/water for miles.
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/
http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/query/queryhtm/nplfin.htm (entire list)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superfund
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_the_United_States
Alabama: 14 sites — Highest score area: 61.42 Triana/Tennessee River. An estimated 475 tons of DDT residues accumulated in sediment. Fish tested, exceeded the FDA guidelines for DDT ppm.
Alaska: 6 sites
Arizona: 9 sites
Arkansas: 9 sites — Highest score area: 65.46 92 acres in Jacksonville, belonging to Vertac. Soil, surface water, and ground water have been contaminated by insecticides, herbicides, chlorinated phenols, and dioxin.
California: 98 sites — Highest score area: 74.86 in Stockton. MCCORMICK & BAXTER CREOSOTING CO. Soils throughout the site were contaminated with arsenic, chromium, copper, PCP, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Soil contamination extends to depths of 40 feet below ground surface (bgs) in some areas. The aquifer beneath the site is contaminated with many of the same substances to a depth of 175 feet bgs. The aquifer is interconnected with a deep aquifer. The deep aquifer within 4 miles of the site provides drinking water to approximately 97,000 people.
Colorado: 18 sites — Highest score area: 64.32 Rocky Flats Plant (USDOE). Releases of solvents, pesticides, plutonium, and tritium have contaminated soils, surface water sediments, and ground water at various locations on the facility. Plutonium contamination of soils and sediments has also been documented beyond the boundaries of the Federally owned land. Additionally, three evaporation ponds have contributed to nitrate contamination of ground water. A USDOE report identified Hillside 881 as the most significant potential risk to populations. Hillside 881 is near the Woman Creek drainage, which eventually discharges into Standly Lake, a major drinking water supply reservoir for several Denver suburbs.
Connecticut: 14 sites — Highest score area: 69.92 New Castle County. The Army Creek Landfill. Contaminants include lead, chromium, arsenic, and a variety of organic compounds, that migrate to an aquifer that supplies water to over 100,000 people. The site holds 1.9 million cubic yards of trash.
Delaware: 13 sites — Highest score area: 69.92 New Castle County, Delaware
District of Columbia: 1 site (Washington Navy Yard listed 1998)
Florida: 55 sites — Highest score area: 70.71 Old Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp in Jacksonville. Contaminants: volatile organic compounds, semi-volatile organic compounds, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, and metals at concentrations exceeding EPA cleanup target levels in the soils, ground water, and sediments. Offsite migration of contaminants has adversely impacted St. Johns River water quality.
Georgia: 16 sites
Guam: 2 sites
Hawaii: 3 sites — Highest score area: 70.82 6,300 acres in Pearl Harbor on the Island of Oahu, Honolulu County at the Pearl Harbor Naval Complex. Contaminant sources include landfills, pesticide disposal pits, chromic acid disposal areas, PCB disposal areas, mercury-contaminated harbor sediments, leaking underground solvent tanks, waste oil facilities, and numerous other types of sources resulting from industrial activities at the complex. Hazardous substances found include mercury, chromium, PCBs, pesticides, trichloroethene, trans-1,2-dichloroethene, and other volatile organic compounds.
Idaho: 6 sites
Illinois: 44 sites — Highest score area: 70.71 DePue/New Jersey Zinc/Mobil Chemical Corp. in the Village of DePue, Bureau County, Illinois. Contaminant souces include a residue pile, a waste pile, lithopone waste material ridges, a cinder fill area, contaminated soils, lagoons/cooling ponds, and gypsum stack ponds. All of the sources were found to contain elevated levels of metals, including zinc, lead, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, and copper. Elevated levels of cadmium were found in residential soil samples. In addition, contamination of a fishery, state wildlife refuge, and wetlands have been documented in Lake DePue.
Indiana: 34 sites
Iowa: 11 sites
Kansas: 12 sites
Kentucky: 14 sites
Louisiana: 9 sites
Maine: 13 sites — Highest score area: 70.71 EASTLAND WOOLEN MILL Corinna, Maine area and area/wells to over 1,900 feet down stream contaminated with chlorobenzene.
Maryland: 20 sites
Massachusetts: 32 sites — Highest score area: 72.42 250 acres in North Woburn, Massachusetts has over 170 years’ accumulation of industrial by-products and wastes. Many of the pits, piles, and lagoons are continuously leaching toxic metals into the environment.
Michigan: 65 sites
Minnesota: 25 sites
Mississippi: 8 sites
Missouri: 33 sites — Highest score area: 84.91 BIG RIVER MINE TAILINGS/ST. JOE MINERALS CORP. Desloge, Missouri approx 110 square miles. St. Joe Minerals Corp. who operated at the site, disposed of lead, cadmium, and zinc-rich mine tailings over approximately 600 acres in a rural area bordered on three sides by Big River. The air, water, soil, and living organisms have been contaminated. Missouri has numerous sites that score 70 or higher. They appear to be along an area called the “lead belt” which produced over 80% of all lead for the US. The EPA provides bottled water to many residences in this area. Sampling data has indicated elevated levels of lead, cadmium, barium, and arsenic in soil, surface water, and ground water. Hundreds of wells are contaminated.
Montana: 16 sites
(images of the toxic Berkeley Pit “Lake” in Butte, Montana)
Nebraska: 13 sites
Nevada: 1 site
New Hampshire: 20 sites — Highest score area:70.71 An inactive waste oil recycling and virgin fuel oil storage and distribution facility located on Kelley Road in Plaistow, Rockingham County, New Hampshire. Chlorinated VOCs, PCBs, copper, and zinc have been detected in Kelley Brook and associated wetlands. Ground water is contaminated with chlorinated VOCs and metals, and concentrations of vinyl chloride and arsenic in a nearby drinking water well exceed maximum contaminant levels
New Jersey: 113 sites — Highest score area: 75.60 LIPARI LANDFILL Pitman, New Jersey. Domestic and industrial wastes, including various toxic organic compounds and heavy metals, were dumped at the site. They percolated into the ground water under the landfill and leached into Chestnut Branch, Rabbit Run, and Alcyon Lake.
New Mexico: 14 sites
New York: 87 sites
North Carolina: 37 sites — Highest score area: 70.71 The Barber Orchard located along U.S. Highway 74 in Waynesville, Haywood County, North Carolina. Various pesticide mixtures containing DDT, hexachlorocyclohexane (BHC), endrin, and/or dieldrin, as well as arsenic, lead, and other hazardous substances, were applied to the orchard to control insects and rodents. Pesticides and related metals from spills, leaks, and improper disposal of pesticide-contaminated containers, as well as from product application, have been detected in soils and ground water throughout the site. The site is being proposed to the NPL because pesticide-related contamination is present in residential soils and in private drinking water wells. NC has a few sites that score over 70.
Ohio: 37 sites
Oklahoma: 8 sites
Oregon: 14 sites — Highest score area: 71.78 TAYLOR LUMBER AND TREATING Sheridan, Oregon. Contamination sources include volatile organic compounds (VOCs), SVOCs, pentachlorophenol (PCP), metals, and dibenzo-p-dioxins/dibenzofuans (dioxins/furans). Further, many of these hazardous substances were documented to have migrated to surface water, soil, and air targets. Air contamination is documented up to 1 mile from the site. Actual contamination has also been documented in residential surface soils for up to a 1/2 mile of the site. Contaminants include barium, lead, mercury, zinc, cadmium, pyrene, bis(2-ethylexyl)phthalate, and several dioxins.
Pennsylvania: 96 sites — Highest score area: 70.71 Safety Light Corporation (SLC) located in South Centre Township near Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, in Columbia County. SLC activities have resulted in contamination of surface and subsurface soil, surface water (lagoons and the Susquehanna River), sediment, and ground water. Waste generated at SLC includes solid and liquid wastestreams contaminated with radioactive materials, including radium, strontium, cesium, and tritium. Ground water contamination as a result of activities at SLC have impacted drinking water wells located within 4 miles of the facility, including private drinking water wells .
Puerto Rico: 16 sites
Rhode Island: 12 sites
South Carolina: 16 sites
South Dakota: 2 sites
Tennessee: 16 sites
Texas: 50 sites
Utah: 16 sites
Vermont: 11 sites
Virgin Island: 1 site
Virginia: 31 sites
Washington: 49 sites
West Virginia: 9 sites
Wisconsin: 38 sites
Wyoming: 2 sites