U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7 – 11201 Renner Blvd., Lenexa, KS 66219

Serving Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Nine Tribal Nations

EPA at 50: Transforming Communities: Cleaning Up America’s Most Hazardous Land Contamination

Contact Information: [email protected]

(Lenexa, Kan., July 27, 2020) – This week, as part of its 50^th anniversary commemoration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Land and Emergency Management is highlighting how work under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) have transformed communities across America by cleaning up some of the country’s most hazardous and uncontrolled waste sites and spills. This year not only marks EPA’s 50^th anniversary, but also the 40^th anniversary of CERCLA, commonly known as Superfund, which was enacted on December 11, 1980 and is America’s signature land contamination cleanup program.

“For the past 50 years, the EPA has worked to fulfill its mission of protecting human health and the environment” said Assistant Administrator Peter Wright “We are proud to continue building on this important work by cleaning up the nation’s most hazardous and contaminated sites to revitalize and return to communities previously hazardous, abandoned and written-off land.”

“Revitalizing communities through environmental cleanup is at the heart of the Superfund and RCRA programs,” said EPA Region 7 Administrator Jim Gulliford. “We know that cleaning up these sites results in safer and more prosperous communities. Throughout our nation’s Heartland, successful Superfund and RCRA cleanups have reduced environmental health risks for thousands of families from our small rural communities to our largest cities.”

During the Trump Administration, EPA has fully or partially deleted 58 sites from the National Priorities List (NPL). In Fiscal Year 2019 alone, the agency deleted all or part of 27 Superfund sites from the NPL – the largest number of deletions in a single fiscal year since 2001. Created in 2017, the Administrator’s Emphasis List has proven to be a very effective tool for facilitating more timely, effective cleanups, having achieved significant milestones at 19 sites, to date.

Many contaminated sites today are the result of historical handling and disposal of hazardous materials, stretching as far back as the early days of the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s. In the late 1970s, the discovery that homes had been built on top of an industrial dumpsite at Love Canal, New York helped bring national attention to the need for modern waste management standards and the legal authority to compel the cleanup of historic waste disposal sites. This national attention led to the enactment of CERCLA and the National Contingency Plan, creating the Superfund program.

Today, Superfund cleanups include cleaning up spills from train car derailments that occurred within the last hour, to removing abandoned drums from long closed and abandoned warehouses, to addressing contamination that may be more widespread or complex such as area-wide contaminated groundwater and sediments caused by decades of industrial activities surrounding rivers and lakes.

EPA, along with authorized state environmental programs, also works to prevent future contamination by regulating the over 35 million tons of hazardous waste that is generated, transported, treated, and/or disposed of each year under RCRA, originally passed in 1976. EPA and the authorized states through the use of permits and orders require the cleanup of historical contamination at RCRA regulated facilities that treat, store or dispose of hazardous waste. These cleanups help revitalize communities and spur economic development by supporting the safe operation of active facilities and enabling reuse of former industrial sites for housing, industrial or commercial projects. Since the 1970s, over 18 million acres of contaminated lands, nearly equal to the size of South Carolina, have been cleaned up and restored for productive reuse.

Collectively, EPA’s Superfund and RCRA programs, working with states, tribes and responsible parties, have cleaned up thousands of contaminated sites, breathing new life into once abandoned areas. This week, EPA will recognize the history, accomplishments, and benefits of the Superfund and RCRA cleanup programs by posting a variety of content on Twitter @EPALand.

EPA’s Office of Land and Emergency Management provides policy, guidance and direction for the agency’s emergency response and waste programs.

For more on EPA’s 50^th Anniversary and how the agency is protecting America’s waters, land and air, visit: https://www.epa.gov/50, or follow the agency on social media using #EPAat50.

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Learn more about EPA Region 7: https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/epa-region-7-midwest

Connect with EPA Region 7 on Facebook: www.facebook.com/eparegion7

Follow us on Twitter: @EPARegion7

For Immediate Release:   July 27, 2020
Media Contact:   Soledad Calvino, 415-972-3512, [email protected]

EUREKA, Calif. – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced an agreement with Pacific Seafood-Eureka, LLC over violations of the federal Clean Water Act. The settlement requires the company to pay a $74,500 penalty after an EPA inspection found the company was discharging wastewater in violation of local and federal standards into the City of Eureka’s sewer system and Humboldt Bay’s Eureka Slough.

“Humboldt Bay is an important waterway enjoyed by many Californians,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator John Busterud. “Unpermitted and untreated discharges of pollutants to the bay can harm aquatic life and water quality. Industrial facilities must also treat their wastewater before it enters local sewer systems to avoid harm to the collection system and potentially impacting discharges from the treatment plant.”

Pacific Seafood-Eureka, part of the Pacific Seafood Group headquartered in Portland, Oregon, operates a seafood processing facility at its Eureka location. During a 2018 inspection with the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and Eureka’s Public Works Department, EPA found the company discharged wastewater directly to the Eureka Slough waterway without the appropriate permit. EPA conducted its inspection after the City of Eureka issued several notices of violations to the facility. The facility also discharged wastewater to the city of Eureka’s sanitary sewer in violation of pretreatment standards.

Violations associated with operation and maintenance of the facility’s pretreatment system were identified, including: wastewater from the indoor shrimp processing area was bypassing the facility’s pretreatment system; the facility lacked adequate secondary containment in the indoor bulk chemical storage area and outdoor chemical storage area; wastewater from the de-shelling process was observed entering a storm drain; and the company was discharging the water used to rinse off oysters and crabs directly into the Eureka Slough. The company addressed all of these compliance issues.  

Under the Clean Water Act, certain types of industrial facilities are required to treat wastewater before it is discharged into the municipal sewer system. Failure to treat industrial wastewater can cause costly damage to municipal sewer treatment plants not designed to treat industrial pollutants and poses health risks to treatment plant and collection system staff who are exposed to these pollutants. Finally, untreated industrial waste can result in pollutants bypassing treatment, enter surface waters, and harming aquatic life and water quality.

The proposed consent agreement is subject to a 30-day comment period and final agency approval. A copy of the consent agreement can be found at: https://www.epa.gov/publicnotices/pacific-seafood-eureka-llc-eureka-ca-proposed-settlement-clean-water-act-class-ii

For more information on National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/npdes-permits/npdes-permits-epas-pacific-southwest

For more information on EPA’s Clean Water Act Pretreatment Program, please visit:
https://www.epa.gov/npdes/national-pretreatment-program

Learn more about EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region. Connect with us on Facebook and on Twitter.