Background
For decades it was standard practice to dump waste on the ground, in rivers or to leave it out in the open. As a result, thousands of uncontrolled or abandoned contaminated sites were created. Some common contaminated sites include abandoned warehouses, manufacturing facilities, processing plants and landfills. In response to growing concern over health and environmental risks posed by these contaminated sites, the 96th Congress established the Superfund program in 1980 to clean up these sites.
The Superfund program is administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in cooperation with individual states. In New Jersey, the Department of Environmental Protection's (NJDEP) Site Remediation Program oversees the Superfund program.
As of 10 March 2010 (2010-03-10), there are 112 Superfund sites listed on the National Priorities List (NPL). Twenty-nine additional sites have been cleaned up and deleted from the list.
Read more about this topic: List Of Superfund Sites In New Jersey
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