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EPA TAKES 4 SITES OFF SUPERFUND LIST

Release Date: 09/30/1999
Contact Information: Alice Kaufman, EPA Community Affairs Office, (617) 918-1064

Boston - Calling the New England Superfund cleanup program a success, the Environmental Protection Agency today announced that it has deleted 4 sites from the Superfund list. Deleted, following a public comment period are: The Saco Tannery Waste Pits in Saco, Maine; Tansitor Electronics Inc. in Bennington, Vermont; Darling Hill Dump in Lyndon, Vermont; and Davis (GSR) Landfill in Glocester and Smithfield, Rhode Island.

"The administrative reforms that the Clinton administration set in place have resulted in a faster, fairer, and a more efficient toxic waste cleanup program," said John P. DeVillars, EPA's New England administrator. "New England sites are being cleaned up in less time and, in many cases, less expensively. And we are now able to move sites off the Superfund list and turn our attention once again to the dirtiest sites in the region."

DeVillars also noted that 70% of the Superfund budget goes to the cleanup of toxic waste sites with the balance devoted to enforcement, research and other critical functions.

Brief descriptions of each site being deleted follows:

Saco Tannery

This 212-acre site in Saco, Maine, operated for two decades as a tannery. Process wastes were disposed of in several lagoons and 53 disposal pits. EPA removed and disposed of corrosive liquids from three acid pits and capped sludge in other pits. This cleanup work resulted in the loss of 10 acres of wetlands. In a first-in-the-nation compensation package, the state of Maine acquired 247 acres of nearby Saco Heath which preserves160 acres of highly valued peatland. The purchased wetlands were being eyed by a mining venture that would have destroyed the wetland's ecological value.

Institutional controls limit the future use of the land and groundwater on the Saco Tannery property, and the area is fenced to limit access to the site. With site cleanup now complete, and with a commitment from the state of Maine to continue operation and maintenance of the site, it is being taken off the federal Superfund list. For a detailed description of this site, go to the EPA's website.

Tansitor Electronics

Located on 36 acres in rural Bennington, Vermont, Tansitor Electronics disposed of process wastes directly into a nearby brook or onto the ground. EPA concurred with the findings of extensive analysis and studies performed at the site and concluded that institutional controls and careful groundwater monitoring would be sufficient to ensure that the site not pose a public health threat. By making this determination, the agency waived a federal cleanup goal of restoring the groundwater to drinking water quality because technology does not exist to clean it up. Tansitor agreed to undertake the work in the future should new technologies become available and prove practical in this situation. For more information on this site, go to EPA's website.

Darling Hill

This 3 ½ acre site in rural Lyndon, Vermont, was used as a dump site for the disposal of light industrial, scrap wood, metal, demolition materials and municipal wastes. The potentially responsible parties installed a carbon filtration system to the municipal water supply to ensure that contaminants would be filtered out of the drinking water and not reach consumers. Following an investigation into the nature and extent of contamination at the site, EPA determined that the low levels of contaminant concentration in soil and groundwater do not pose an unacceptable risk to people or the environment. For more information on this site, go to EPA's website.

Davis (GSR) Landfill

This 58-acre site in the towns of Glocester and Smithfield, Rhode Island, was an uncapped municipal landfill with low levels of volatile organic compounds and metals identified in groundwater, surface water and sediments. After extensive investigations, EPA determined that the site posed no public health risks. Because of this, no cleanup is necessary and deletion from the Superfund list is warranted. For more information, go to EPA's website.

Any site deleted from the NPL remains eligible for Superfund financed actions if conditions at the site warrant actions in the future. Deletion of a site from the NPL does not create, alter, or revoke any individual's rights or obligations.