The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced a new list of potential Superfund sites that will likely receive immediate attention from the organization, including the San Jacinto Waste Pits site in Houston, Texas.
The list, which includes 21 locations across the United States, comes in direct response to the Superfund Task Force Recommendations, a list of recommendations intending to streamline and improve the Superfund program that was issued this past summer.
The new initiative comes two months after the San Jacinto Waste Pit’s cleanup plan was approved by the EPA and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in October.
“Today, we are announcing our decision to ensure the San Jacinto site is cleaned up for the benefit of the entire community,” Pruitt said in October. “As exemplified today, EPA is prioritizing Superfund clean-up by making decisions in a decisive, timely manner. The San Jacinto Waste Pits site was added to the National Priority List nearly a decade ago, and I am pleased to announce a decision has been made to permanently address the highly toxic materials to ensure health and safety in the surrounding communities.”
However, at the time of release for this week’s EPA list, the site’s future remains tangled as negotiations have stalled between responsible parties.
To craft the list, the EPA analyzed potential sites that would benefit from EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s direct involvement and locations that have concrete actions that could be undertaken to improve human health and the environment.
The list itself is not set in stone, as sites will often be added or removed based on how pressing the situation is at various locations throughout the country.
