EPA Adds Three More Sites to Superfund List

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has added three hazardous waste sites, including one former scrap metal recycling facility, to the National Priorities List of Superfund sites. To date, there are 1,270 sites currently on the NPL.

The three added are the following: Peck Iron and Metal, Portsmouth, Va.; Raritan Bay Slag, Old Bridge Township, N.J.; and U.S. Magnesium, Tooele County, Utah.

Peck Iron, the former scrap metal facility, has been closed for 10 years. However, from 1945 to 1999, Peck Iron purchased, processed, stored, and shipped metal scrap from military bases; federal, state, and local government agencies; and local businesses. Scrap metal handled at the facility included damaged and obsolete equipment, attachments, parts, and other miscellaneous materials, including scrapped naval vessels.

Some of these scrap materials contained cadmium, PCB, insulated wire, gaskets, fluorescent lights and transformer oils, and lead scrapped bridge sections and automobile batteries. PCB-containing transformers were disassembled at the facility and the wires were burned to remove insulation.

According to the EPA, the primary contaminants are PCBs and lead, which have been detected in a wetland on the southwest border of the facility.