EPA Announces Additional $11.5M For Superfund Site In Oregon

Yesterday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced more than $1B for cleanup projects across the country, including Oregon.

An additional $11.5M is now available to address the 53-acre Northwest Pipe & Casing/Hall Process Company Superfund site located in Clackamas, Oregon. The site is the source of a persistent plume of chlorinated solvent contaminated groundwater. The original cleanup plan for groundwater included a remedy that was found to be ineffective after several years of operation. In the years since the original cleanup plan, groundwater cleanup technologies have progressed and new approaches are now viable. New funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be used to support the design and implementation of one of these newer approaches, and ultimately reduce the size of the contaminated groundwater plume and the areas subject to restrictions.

“Yesterday’s funding announcement is the latest example of how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is enabling EPA to address legacy pollution in communities across the Pacific Northwest,” said EPA Region 10 Administrator Casey Sixkiller. “With this funding EPA will be able to deploy new technologies, reduce ongoing impacts to the area, and accelerate cleanup of the site.”

“The EPA’s major investments to clean up Superfund sites across the nation—including federal funding needed to help address soil and groundwater contamination at the Northwest Pipe & Casing/Hall Process Company Superfund site in Clackamas County—is a win to protect our natural resources, community members’ health, and the local economy,” said Senator Jeff Merkley, Chairman of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees annual funding for the EPA’s Superfund program. “Funding projects like these that clean up enduring pollution, advance environmental justice, and invest in the long-term health, safety, and revitalization of our communities is just what the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was intended to do.”

Today’s investment is the final wave of funding from the $3.5B allocated for Superfund cleanup work in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. So far, EPA has deployed more than $2B for cleanup activities at more than 150 Superfund National Priorities List sites. In 2023, EPA continued to fund Superfund pre-construction activities such as remedial investigations, feasibility studies, remedial designs, and community involvement at double pre-Bipartisan Infrastructure Law levels.

EPA is committed to continuing to carry out this work advancing environmental justice and incorporating equity considerations into all aspects of the Superfund cleanup process. More than one in four Black and Hispanic Americans live within three miles of a Superfund site. These investments are restoring the health and economic vitality of communities that have been exposed to pervasive legacy pollution.

In 1980, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, known as Superfund. The law gave EPA the authority and funds to hold polluters accountable for cleaning up the most contaminated sites across the country. When no viable responsible party is found or cannot afford the cleanup, EPA steps in to address risks to human health and the environment using funds appropriated by Congress, like the funding provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

To see a list of the 25 sites nationwide receiving funding, visit EPA’s Superfund webpage.