Biden administration puts $1B toward cleaning up 110 contaminated sites

The Biden administration will put $1 billion toward cleaning up 110 contaminated sites, it said Tuesday.

The $1 billion represents the final tranche of a total of $3.5 billion the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law put toward cleaning up Superfund sites, or areas that have been contaminated by hazardous waste.

It will go toward launching new cleanup projects at 25 sites and advancing ongoing cleanups at 85 sites. 

Superfund sites are created when polluters dump hazardous waste into the environment. They can include chemicals from manufacturing, landfills and mining. According to the EPA, more than a quarter of Black and Hispanic Americans live within three miles of a Superfund site.

“The toxic substances found at these Superfund sites can make us sick. They can contaminate the water we drink, the air we breathe and the lakes, rivers and streams that are so important to our communities,” Janet McCabe, Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), told reporters. 

Under the Superfund program, polluters either have to clean up their waste or reimburse the EPA for cleanups it undertakes. In cases where there’s no specific party that’s responsible, EPA cleans up the sites.

Among the projects that will receive funding are cleanup of soil and water in Montana that have been contaminated with lead, a now-closed mercury mine in California and treatment of wetland and soil in Delaware that were contaminated by a former chemical manufacturing plant.