The EPA reported that it added 52 names to its list of federal facilities or sites with hazardous waste or hazardous substances.  Combined with the 17 names deleted, federal entries to the list now total 2,334.

Section 120(c) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund) requires the EPA to establish a docket that contains certain information reported to the Agency by federal facilities that manage hazardous waste or from which a reportable quantity of hazardous substances has been released.

Public resource

According to the Agency, the docket serves three major purposes: to identify all federal facilities that must be evaluated to determine whether they pose a risk to human health and the environment sufficient to warrant inclusion on the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL); to compile and maintain the information submitted to the EPA on such facilities under the provisions listed in Section 120(c) of CERCLA; and to provide a mechanism to make the information available to the public.  The EPA released its initial list of federal facilities in 1988, and the current list is the 25th update. 

New entries to the list include the United States Mint in San Francisco; the Smithsonian Institute’s Natural History Building in Washington, D.C.; and the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York.  Each of these facilities was listed because of information reported under RCRA Section 3010, which requires waste generators, transporters, and transport, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs) to notify the EPA of their hazardous waste activity.

Release or threat of release

Facilities were also added to the list because they met CERCLA Section 103(c) criteria, which require facilities that have stored, treated, or disposed of hazardous wastes and where there is known, suspected, or likely releases of hazardous substances to report their activities to the EPA.  An “Other” category covers facilities that have “otherwise” been identified to have releases or threat of releases of hazardous substances.

Deletions from the list include facilities for which there was an incorrect report submitted for hazardous waste activity under RCRA; a facility that was not federally owned or operated at the time of the listing; facilities included more than once; or when multiple facilities are combined under one listing.  Deleted facilities are no longer subject to the requirements of CERCLA Section 120(c).

EPA’s 25th update of the federal agency hazardous waste compliance docket was published in the November 6, 2012, FR.