EPA Adds Louisiana Superfund Site to the National Priorities List

 USEPA News Release:

EPA Adds Louisiana Superfund Site to the National Priorities List

DALLAS, TEXAS (March 6, 2024) —The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is adding the Louisiana Superfund site Exide Baton Rouge to the National Priorities List (NPL). The NPL is a list of known sites throughout the United States and its territories where releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants pose significant threats to human health and the environment. By adding this site to the NPL, EPA can continue to assess the human health and environmental risks associated to the site and determine if remedial action is needed.

“Updating the National Priorities List is a critical component of EPA's comprehensive approach to protecting human health and the environment from contamination, including in communities overburdened by disproportionate environmental impacts,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “Cleaning up contaminated land and groundwater and returning them for productive use to communities, especially those which have borne the brunt of legacy pollution, is a win for public health and local economies.”

“By prioritizing the Exide Baton Rouge site, we are addressing the contamination and pollution that has been affecting the East Baton Rouge community,” said Regional Administrator Dr. Earthea Nance. “Adding this site to the National Priorities List will allow for additional remediation, outreach, and cleanup efforts as well as additional funding from President’s Biden Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. I would like to thank our state partners for their previous work on the site and to thank the residents for their patience as we work to remove these hazardous chemicals from the area.”

The Exide Baton Rouge site is a former secondary lead smelter and refinery. The proposed National Priorities List site covers 33 acres next to Baton Rouge Bayou. High concentrations of antimony, arsenic, lead, manganese and zinc have been found in groundwater and soils on the site, with unlined waste piles and open surface impoundments contributing to discharges of contaminated ground and surface water. An onsite system is in place to collect and treat contaminated leachate. The state of Louisiana referred the site to EPA in 2022 to ensure continued operation of the wastewater treatment system.

EPA is adding three other Superfund sites to the National Priorities List:

• Former Exide Technologies Laureldale in Laureldale, Pennsylvania.
• Acme Steel Coke Plant in Chicago, Illinois.
• Lot 46 Valley Gardens TCE in Des Moines, Iowa.

EPA is proposing to add the following sites to the National Priorities List:

• Gelman Sciences Inc in Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Afterthought Mine in Bella Vista, California
• Upper Columbia River in Stevens County, Washington

The five added sites and one of the sites being proposed (Upper Columbia River) to the National Priorities List are located in communities historically overburdened by pollution. These sites raise potential environmental justice concerns based on income, demographic, education, linguistic, and life expectancy data. By taking action to add and propose to add these six sites to the National Priorities List, EPA is working to protect communities in the greatest need.

Past activities at the sites announced include uranium, copper, zinc, lead, silver and gold mining; lead smelting and refining; coke, molten iron and steel production; and battery manufacturing and recycling. Site contaminants are numerous and include lead, mercury, zinc and other metals; radium 226; chlorinated solvents; and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Contamination affects surface water, groundwater, soil, air and sediment.

President Biden’s historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law continues to accelerate EPA’s work to clean up NPL sites with a $3.5 billion investment in the Superfund remedial program. The law also reinstated the Superfund chemical excise taxes to help clean up such sites, making it one of the largest investments in American history to address legacy pollution. Due to this historic funding, EPA has been able to provide as much funding for site cleanup work in the past two years as it did in the previous five years.

Background 

The National Priorities List includes sites with the nation’s most serious uncontrolled or abandoned releases of contamination. This list serves as the basis for prioritizing EPA Superfund cleanup funding and enforcement actions. Only releases at non-federal sites included on the National Priorities List are eligible to receive federal funding for long-term, permanent cleanup.  

Before EPA adds a site to the National Priorities List, a site must meet EPA’s requirements and be proposed for addition to the list in the Federal Register, subject to a 60-day public comment period. EPA may add the site to the National Priorities List if it continues to meet the listing requirements after the public comment period closes and the agency has responded to any comments. 

Superfund cleanups provide health and economic benefits to communities. The program is credited for significant reductions in both birth defects and blood-lead levels among children living near sites, and research has shown residential property values increase up to 24 percent within three miles of sites after cleanup. 

Since taking office, the Biden-Harris Administration has followed through on commitments to update the National Priorities List twice a year, as opposed to once per year. Today’s announcement is the first time EPA is updating the National Priorities List in 2024. 

Learn more about Superfund and the National Priorities List. 

For Federal Register notices and supporting documents for the National Priorities List and proposed sites, please visit: 

New Proposed and New Superfund National Priorities List Sites.