Superfund Site Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Backlog Of Toxic Superfund Cleanup Sites Grows Under Trump Administration

By NWPB News January 3, 2020

The Newtown Creek is seen in the Queens Borough of New York. Newtown Creek is a waterway approximately 3.5 miles long between the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The Superfund designation will allow the Environmental Protection Agency to go after the polluters of the waterway forcing them to pay an estimated $500 million for the cleanup. CREDIT: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

The Trump administration has built up the biggest backlog of unfunded toxic Superfund clean-up projects in at least 15 years, nearly triple the number that were stalled for lack of money in the Obama era, according to 2019 figures quietly released by the Environmental Protection Agency over the winter holidays. Read More

Washington, Oregon, Yakama Nation Call For Superfund Listing At Bonneville Dam

By Cassandra Profita October 18, 2019

Bradford Island sits alongside Bonneville Dam in the middle of the Columbia River.

The Yakama Nation and the states of Oregon and Washington are asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to declare a new Superfund site on the Columbia River at Bradford Island alongside Bonneville Dam. Continue Reading Read More

Washington Ecology Dept. Has Burning Desire To Clean Up Long-Smoldering Pasco Landfill

By Courtney Flatt September 27, 2018

This photo from the 1970s shows various solvents and industrial chemicals that Washington state Ecology officials are trying to clean up in a Pasco Superfund site. CREDIT: WA DOE

After nearly 20 years, a troubled landfill-turned Superfund site outside Pasco may soon have a final cleanup plan. Washington State Department of Ecology managers presented options Wednesday at a public meeting in the Tri-Cities. Read More

Senior EPA Advisor To Visit Northwest Superfund Sites

By NWPB December 14, 2017

A partial aerial view of the cleaned up McCormick and Baxter site along the Willamette River.

A senior Environmental Protection Agency advisor will visit superfund sites in the Pacific Northwest this week. Ericka Cruz Guevarra reports. Superfund Task Force chair Albert Kelly will meet with state and city leaders in Portland tomorrow/Wednesday to talk about updates to the EPA’s Portland Harbor Superfund Site cleanup plan. Kelly is scheduled to tour the… Read More