EPA announces start of new cleanup projects at 22 Superfund sites, along with 100 other ongoing cleanups, thanks to President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. EPA images
Vermont Business Magazine The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Friday the second wave of approximately $1 billion in funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to start new cleanup projects at 22 Superfund sites, including the Pike Hill Copper Mine site in Corinth, and expedite over 100 other ongoing cleanups across the country.
Thousands of contaminated sites exist nationally due to hazardous waste being dumped, left out in the open, or otherwise improperly managed, including in manufacturing facilities, processing plants, landfills, and mining sites. Superfund cleanups help transform contaminated properties and create jobs in overburdened communities, while repurposing these sites for a wide range of uses, including public parks, retail businesses, office space, residences, warehouses, and solar power generation. In addition, these sites can support natural areas, parks, and recreation facilities, providing greenspace and safe places for families to play outside.
“This Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding targets the much-needed clean-up of legacy pollution that’s harmful to our health and the environment,” said EPA New England Regional Administrator David W. Cash. “We look forward to the start-up and completion of this important work.”
“Thanks to the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, folks in Corinth will get a helping hand to clean up the long-abandoned Pike Hill Copper Mine and bring an end to more than 100 years of sulfuric acid contamination,” said U.S. Senator Peter Welch. “Superfund remediation protects our environment and the health of the surrounding community. It’s essential work, and I’m grateful for all EPA has done to make this possible. I look forward to monitoring the work in Corinth as they remediate the Pike Hill site.”
“Keeping environmental justice at the forefront of rebuilding America’s infrastructure means a brighter future for us all - a key pillar of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. It is helping transform our communities by revitalizing our roads, bridges, and waterways,” said U.S. Representative Rebecca Balint. “This project is another example of the impact of this bold investment in infrastructure. Cleanup at this mine site in Corinth is so important to keeping Vermonters healthy and our water clean.”
The Site is an abandoned copper mine located in the Town of Corinth, Orange County, Vermont. It includes three historic mining areas: Union, Eureka (also known as Corinth), and Smith (also known as Bicknell) mines. Together, the three mines that comprise the Site are the most northerly of the copper mines comprising the larger Orange County copper belt. The other mines in this area include the Elizabeth Mine and the Ely Copper Mine, which are both NPL Superfund sites.
The waste piles at the Site extend over about 15 acres with an estimated volume of 85,000 cubic yards (cy) and are acting as a continuing source of contamination for the surface water and sediment of Pike Hill Brook and Cookville Brook Tributary #4. The Union and Eureka mines and the associated waste piles cover an area of about 14 acres and contain an estimated 81,000 cy of waste rock and tailing. The Smith mine and associated waste piles extend over an area of about 1 acre and contain about 4,000 cy of waste rock. The remaining areas of the Site include mine openings, historic foundations from the former mining operations and undeveloped woodlands.
The mine waste generates mining influenced water characterized by a low pH leachate with elevated metals, particularly aluminum, copper, iron and zinc, which is released via stormwater and other routes into the local waterways.
Copper ore was initially discovered in the vicinity of the Smith Mine on Pike Hill in 1845. In about 1853, mining of the Eureka deposit began at the peak of Pike Hill. Underground operations at the Eureka and Union Mines began in 1863. In 1881, the known portion of the ore body at the Union Mine was exhausted. The Smith Mine closed in 1882, leaving a relatively small area of waste rock piles and underground workings. The Eureka Mine ore mill closed in 1907 and activities were poorly documented between 1907 and 1915, which suggests that limited mining took place there during that period. Operations at the Eureka and Union Mines resumed under a single company (Pike Hill Mines Company) between 1916 and 1919. The magnetic separation and froth flotation processes were used during the two post 1900 operations resulting in the creation of the tailing waste at the Site. During the 1880’s ore from the Pike Hill mines was brought to the Ely Copper Mine for smelting. The underground workings at the Pike Hill mines were never reopened, but during the late 1940s and early 1950s, portions of the ore dumps were trucked to the Elizabeth Mine mill for processing. The only remaining Site buildings were destroyed by fire in 1960.
The $1 billion investment announced Friday is the second wave of funding from the $3.5 billion allocated for Superfund cleanup work in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
With the first wave of funding announced in December 2021, EPA deployed more than $1 billion for cleanup activities at more than 100 Superfund National Priorities List sites across the country. Thanks to this historic funding, EPA started 81 new cleanup projects in 2022, including projects at 44 sites previously on the backlog.
By starting four times as many construction projects as the year before, EPA is aggressively bringing more sites across the country closer to finishing cleanup. For example, in Evansville, Indiana, EPA continued to reduce exposures to lead and arsenic in soil in the neighborhoods of the Jacobsville Neighborhood Contamination site by starting the next phase of cleaning up contaminated residential soils.
In addition to funding cleanup construction work, this investment is enabling EPA to increase funding for and accelerate essential work needed to prepare sites for construction and ensure that communities are meaningfully involved in the cleanup process. In 2022, EPA more than doubled its spending for Superfund pre-construction activities like remedial investigations, feasibility studies, remedial designs, and community involvement.
EPA is committed to carrying out this work in line with President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative by advancing environmental justice and incorporating equity considerations into all aspects of the Superfund cleanup process. This will help ensure that historic and ongoing impacts of contamination on overburdened communities are fully considered and addressed. Out of the 22 sites to receive funding for new cleanup projects, 60% are in communities with the potential for environmental justice concerns based on data from EJSCREEN, an environmental justice mapping and screening tool that provides EPA with a nationally consistent dataset and approach for combining environmental and demographic socioeconomic indicators.
Background:
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.
For more information on each site, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/superfund/superfund-sites-new-construction-projects-receive-bipartisan-infrastructure-law-funding
To see highlights from the first year of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding at Superfund sites, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/infrastructure/cleaning-superfund-sites-highlights-bipartisan-infrastructure-law-funding
For more information about EPA’s Superfund program, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/superfund
EPA Region 1: https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/epa-region-1-new-england
BOSTON (Feb. 10, 2023) - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency