(AGENPARL) - Roma, 27 Febbraio 2024 - (AGENPARL) – mar 27 febbraio 2024 Issued: Feb 27, 2024 (1:49pm EST)
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EPA Announces Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funds for Cleanups at Two
Superfund Sites in New York
NEW YORK (February 27, 2024) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) announced that two New York Superfund sites are among the over 100 sites
across the country getting more than $1 billion for cleanup projects as part
of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. This funding is made
possible by the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and will launch
new cleanup projects at 25 Superfund sites and continue other cleanups at over
85 Superfund sites. The New York Superfund sites included are the Old
Roosevelt Field Contaminated Groundwater Area Site in Garden City and a
portion of the Onondaga Lake Superfund site near Syracuse. 
Thousands of contaminated sites exist nationally due to hazardous waste being
dumped, left out in the open, or otherwise improperly managed. These sites can
include toxic chemicals from manufacturing facilities, processing plants,
landfills and mining, and can harm the health and well-being of local
communities in urban and rural areas. More than one in four Black and Hispanic
Americans live within three miles of a Superfund site.? 
“People living in New York have seen firsthand how transformative the
Superfund program can be for communities,” said Regional Administrator Lisa
F. Garcia.  “This investment in America and in New York builds on the
historic progress we have already made in recent years to ensure that
communities living near the most serious uncontrolled, or abandoned
contaminated sites get the protections they deserve.” 
“Syracuse and the communities surrounding Onondaga Lake have seen firsthand
how transformative the Superfund program can be. Onondaga Lake was once one of
the most polluted lakes in the country, but because of decades of work by
activists and the strengthened federal environmental laws, the waterways are
the cleanest they have been in nearly a century, but there is still much more
to be done. Today, thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, approximately
$23 million in federal funding will flow to jumpstart the cleanup of the Ley
Creek portion of the Onondaga Lake Superfund site – while the EPA continues
work to hold polluters accountable,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck
Schumer. “Our work is far from finished, but kick starting the cleanup of
these long-polluted sites and waterways exactly what the Superfund funding I
fought to supercharge in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was mean to do. I
am proud to deliver this federal funding so that cleanup for Central NY can
finally get underway and vow to continue to fight for the resources needed to
protect our beautiful Central New York waterways.”
“This is a critical investment that will help clean up dangerous and
widespread contaminants in New York’s groundwater and waterways,” said
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. “I’m proud that the Bipartisan Infrastructure
Law is providing this funding, which will help clean up contamination at
Roosevelt Field and Onondaga Lake. I will continue working with the Biden
administration to address legacy pollution and to improve public health for
all.”
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil
Seggos said, “Thanks to our strong partnership with U.S. EPA Administrator
Michael Regan and EPA Regional Administrator 2 Lisa Garcia, New York State
continues to benefit from investments under the Biden Administration’s
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to cleanup former industrial sites in
communities across the state. The significant funding announced today bolsters
New York’s extensive and ongoing cleanup efforts in communities historically
overburdened by environmental pollution, advancing a path to a cleaner
environment and protection of the heath of New Yorkers for generations to
come.”
The Old Roosevelt Field Contaminated Groundwater Area Site is located on the
former location of the Roosevelt Field airfield in Garden City, Nassau County,
New York. Roosevelt Field was used for aviation from 1911 to 1951. It is
likely that chlorinated solvents were used at Roosevelt Field during and after
World War II. Trichloroethylene (TCE) and Tetrachloroethylene (PCE) were
detected in the Village of Garden City in several public water supply wells in
the late 1970s and early 1980s.  All residences and commercial buildings
within the site are now connected to public water supplies that are treated to
meet drinking water standards.  
EPA BIL funding will be used to address groundwater contamination at the Old
Roosevelt Field Contaminated Groundwater site by pumping the water to the
surface, treating it and discharging to a basin. This work is estimated to
cost about $13 million. 
The 4.6-square mile Onondaga Lake site is located northwest of Syracuse in New
York. Its shoreline borders Syracuse, as well as the towns of Geddes and
Salina and villages of Solvay and Liverpool. The site includes the lake and
seven tributaries, as well as several land-based sources of contamination.
Industries around Onondaga Lake have discharged pollutants and sewage into the
lake for more than 100 years. To facilitate coordination of the various
investigations and cleanup activities being conducted by EPA and the New York
Department of Environmental Conservation in and on the shorelines of the lake
and several of its tributaries, 11 subsites have been created for the site.
The Ley Creek Deferred Media portion of the General Motors–Inland Fisher
Guide subsite includes Ley Creek and its floodplains from the former General
Motors facility to the Route 11 bridge.   
The EPA BIL funding will be used to address soil on the floodplains and
sediment in Ley Creek that are contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs) and metals. The work will include excavating, disposing of and
backfilling about 144,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil from the
floodplains and excavating and disposing of about 9,600 cubic yards of
contaminated sediment from the bottom of Ley Creek. The BIL funding will pay
for approximately $23 million worth of cleanup work to get the action started
as EPA continues to engage with responsible parties. 
Today’s investment is the final wave of funding from the $3.5 billion
allocated for Superfund cleanup work in the President’s Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law. So far, EPA has deployed more than $2 billion for cleanup
activities at more than 150 Superfund National Priorities List sites. Thanks
President Biden’s commitment to addressing legacy pollution and improving
public health, EPA has been able to provide as much funding for cleanup work
in the past two years as it did in the previous five years while delivering on
President Biden’s?Justice40 Initiative, which set a goal to deliver 40% of
the overall benefits of certain federal investments to disadvantaged
communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by
pollution. 
EPA is committed to advancing environmental justice and incorporating equity
considerations into all aspects of the Superfund cleanup process.  Thus far,
nearly 80% of the funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has gone to
sites in communities with potential environmental justice concerns. Out of the
25 sites to receive funding for new cleanup projects, more than 75% are in
communities with potential environmental justice concerns based on data from
EJSCREEN. 
President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is restoring the health and
economic vitality of communities that have been exposed to pervasive legacy
pollution. The historic investment made by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
strengthens every part of the Superfund program, making a dramatic difference
in EPA’s ability to tackle threats to human health and the environment. In
addition to funding cleanup construction work, the investment is enabling EPA
to increase funding for and accelerate essential work needed to prepare sites
for construction and to ensure communities are meaningfully involved in the
cleanup process. 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. 
In 1980, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation and Liability Act (CERLCA), 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 to receive funding for new cleanup projects,
visit EPA’s Superfund webpage.
To see highlights from the first two years of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
funding at Superfund sites, visit EPA’s Cleaning Up Superfund Sites:
Highlights of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funding website.
For more information about EPA’s Superfund program, visit EPA’s Superfund
website.