Thousands of brownfields and other contaminated sites are being returned to beneficial uses as a result of state programs, yet many of these sites lack adequate measures to protect site users from any contamination that may be left, according to a new report by the Environmental Law Institute. States have cleaned up more than 29,000 sites since the first program began in 1976, but they fail to ensure long-term stewardship. An Analysis of State Superfund Programs: 50-State Study, 2001 Update reveals gaps in state programs for assuring that public health and safety will be protected from residual contamination over the long term.
For more than a decade, ELI has examined cleanup programs throughout the 50 states, the District and Puerto Rico, issuing six reports that outline state statutes, program organizations, staffing, funding, expenditures, cleanup standards, and cleanup activities. The 2001 Update, the seventh installment in a series of studies funded by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, highlights states’ increased use of long-term stewardship and institutional controls. Such controls are of growing importance due to the increasing use of remedies in voluntary and brownfields cleanup programs that allow residual contamination to remain on restricted sites. States and the federal government use institutional controls, or legal and administrative measures, to protect the public from harmful exposure to leftover hazardous substances. Forty-three states and the District use such measures at some or all of their sites, but implementation is inconsistent.
“Some states don’t use institutional controls at all sites where they are needed,” said John Pendergrass, ELI senior attorney and director of the Center for State, Local, and Regional Environmental Programs. “Colorado requires institutional controls at sites cleaned up under state mandate, but makes them optional for voluntary cleanup program participants. On the other hand, Indiana, Missouri, West Virginia, and Wyoming use institutional controls in their voluntary programs but not for mandatory cleanups.”
Overall, the 2001 Update found that for fiscal year 2000, states completed 4,500 cleanups of sites not on the National Priority List. An additional 15,700 non-NPL cleanups are ongoing. The study found that states cleaned up about the same number of sites in 2000 as in 1997, while spending $505.6 million-$59.5 million or 10 percent less than three years earlier.
An Analysis of State Superfund Programs: 50-State Study, 2001 Update may be ordered through the online ELI Store or by calling (800) 433-5120. For more information about the study or ELI’s Center for State, Local, and Regional Environmental Programs, please contact John Pendergrass at (202) 939-3846.