 Hello. I'm Kenneth Lucas, a project manager for EPA's Superfund program. Years ago, people didn't understand how certain chemical waste would affect people's health and the environment. Many wastes were dumped on the ground, into rivers, or left out in the open. As a result, thousands of abandoned hazardous waste sites were created. If there's a Superfund site in your neighborhood, you're probably wondering what will happen. How will it be cleaned up, who will pay for the cleanup, and what you can do to keep your family and community safe? We produced this video to help you understand the Superfund process, from discovery of a site through cleanup, and to tell you what you can do to become involved. There are several steps to the Superfund process. Site discovery, site assessment, early action, and long-term action. All of these steps work toward one goal, and that is to clean up sites quickly and safely. The number one goal of the Superfund program is to protect human health and the environment. Its mandate is addressed to abandoned and uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. So how we accomplish that is to first identify these sites, come up with a plan to remediate them, and then go in and actually, as we say, turn dirt, get in, get the chemicals out, and leave it in a condition that is safe for the surrounding community for the future. Throughout the process, we involve the community and enforce the law by making the ones responsible for creating Superfund sites paid to clean them up. The Superfund process begins with site discovery. Potential hazardous waste sites come to EPA's attention through a variety of sources. Sometimes we receive reports from local and state agencies, businesses, the U.S. Coast Guard, and many sites are reported by people like you. In fact, EPA encourages public participation in the Superfund process from the very beginning. I would say community involvement is essential to the Superfund cleanup process. Without an informed community, I don't believe that we can have an effective cleanup at a Superfund site. The National Response Center has a 24-hour hotline where you can call to report a hazardous waste incident or site. Many of the calls that come into the hotline are emergencies and require immediate action. Everyone can relate to an emergency action. You're going to have an explosion threat, there could be a fire, there could be a lagoon full of contaminants that because of heavy rains is about to overflow into a pristine river. If there is an emergency, Superfund will immediately respond to eliminate any risks to the community and to ensure that people and the environment are safe. Whether or not it begins as an emergency, every site that is reported to EPA must undergo a site assessment to evaluate the possible hazards posed by the site and to determine whether any additional cleanup action is necessary. Site assessment allows us to screen a large number of sites and to prioritize our work so that those sites that pose the worst threat to human health and to the environment are the ones that get cleaned up. It's at this point in the process we've identified a potential problem and the state and EPA will begin working together to further characterize the problem. We'll send technical experts to the site to test the soil, water and the air to get a better idea of the hazardous waste that are present at the site. Sometimes they will interview nearby residents to compile a history of the site. They use this information to determine how serious the risk may be. If EPA determines that the site may be a threat to the community or the environment in the near future the agency will perform what is called an early action at the site. Early action really addresses imminent threats such as surface soil that children could eat. What we would do is go in and remove the source of contamination, get in there quickly and get the risk reduction. Typically early actions are taken to prevent direct contact with contaminants, remove hazardous materials, prevent contaminants from spreading, provide drinking water, temporarily or permanently evacuate or relocate affected residents. Whatever it takes to shorten the time people are exposed to contamination and to decrease the negative effects of the contaminants to people and the environment. While EPA is working to remove threats posed by the site and assessed the site the agency is also seeking out the individuals or companies responsible known as potentially responsible parties. What we do is identify the companies or the people responsible for the contamination. Then we try to reach an agreement to get them to pay for their fair share of the cleanup work at the site. Right now the majority of the cleanup work going on at Superfront sites is either being performed or being paid for by the responsible parties. If EPA cannot find the responsible parties or can't force them to pay for the cleanup the agency will pay for the work. Some sites have extensive contamination problems caused by years of pollution and neglect. They may take several years even decades to clean up. These sites require what are called long-term actions. A long-term action is more than just a surface problem. We may get in and find hundreds of leaking drums buried beneath the surface or we may find that the groundwater supply has been contaminated. At other sites we may need to restore the wetlands or other natural resources but as the name suggests we're going to be there working for some time to correct the problem. To gauge the extent of the contamination at a site, EPA uses a hazard ranking system. If the site scores high enough it's placed on the national priorities list which is a published list of hazardous waste sites that are eligible for long-term cleanup action under the Superfund program. Once the site has been placed on the national priorities list EPA will perform detailed studies to determine the best option to clean up the contamination. Our goal is to take these formerly contaminated properties and not only make them environmentally safe and safe for the community but to make the land usable again. In doing this we work closely with the community and the states to come up with an agreed-upon use for the property and then design a cleanup that will meet this use. EPA then uses this information to develop and present a proposed plan for long-term cleanup which describes the various cleanup options being considered and identifies the option EPA believes will work best. This plan is presented to the community and to local and state officials for comment. This information can be highly technical so EPA provides assistance to communities through the technical assistance grant program to help them understand the complex information relating to Superfund cleanup. The technical assistance grant program allows those community groups to hire their own independent technical advisor who takes this technical information and interprets it into a form that community members can understand. EPA also takes into account the needs of minority and low-income citizens to make sure that the sites in these communities receive equal attention and protection. We are taking a look at the way that we do business at EPA to make sure that we are making fair decisions especially in low-income and minority communities that are around Superfund sites. We are reaching out to these various communities and empowering them so they can get involved in the cleanup process. Once the public's concerns are addressed EPA publishes a record of decision which describes how the agency plans to clean up the site. EPA will then inform the community about the action that will take place at the site. Now the EPA is ready to begin the actual cleanup of the site. The length of time that it takes to clean up a Superfund site depends a lot on the complexity of the site and the nature of the contaminants that are there. With more complex sites we may have to do several activities over a period of five or more years and in some of those, particularly where we're cleaning up groundwater we may be there for 20 or 30 years. To make sure that sites remain safe EPA routinely monitors sites. If there's any indication of a problem that threatens people or the environment EPA will take an early action to immediately eliminate the threat and make the site safe again. Everyone wants a clean environment a safe place to work and to raise our families. EPA understands this and through the Superfund program we're working to clean up hazardous waste sites and to make the environment safe. Now and in the future.