Superfund is both an actual fund and a shorthand term for the inclination of America ’s nastiest toxic waste situation . One in two Americans lives within ten miles of a Superfund internet site . Currently , there are about1,300 siteson the list , although it fluctuates . New Jersey has themostSuperfund sites , with over a hundred . Nevada and the District of Columbia have one to each one . Here ’s a closer look at some of the notable ones .
Love Canal
Love Canalis the granddaddy of Superfund sites . It started out as a glow in the eye of a developer named William Love . In 1892 , Love proposed a seven - mile channel around Niagara Falls . Like any dependable developer , he named the projection after himself .
Love had to give up his plan after digging only one sea mile of the channel . Locals swam and fished in the epithelial duct while chemical substance manufacturers used it as a landfill . In 1953 , with the duct full of toxic waste , it was crest . But afterwards developers ignore warnings and eventually built houses , schools and take on fields over the give up channel . Predictably , occupier started getting sick , and in 1978 , Love Canal was declare the first Union tragedy country create by a homo - made disaster . The administration in the end bought out the homes of 278 families .
Spurred by Love Canal , Congress recruit a especial tax on crude and chemical substance caller to clean up such sites . It raised $ 1.8 billion — plenty , they assumed , to clean up all the toxic permissive waste in the country . But as more and more toxic site were identified — at one point , 30,000 were propose — and as Love Canal pull back into memory , funds have dwindle away .
Picher, Oklahoma
One present - day Love Canal is inPicher , Oklahoma , which was once a boomtown for excavation lead and Zn . Pollution has obliterate off many of the trees , and vast down of mine detritus produce a stark , lunar landscape in the Oklahoma countryside . With the entire town on the wand of crash due to unstable mineshafts , Uncle Sam has offer to buy out the home of all Picher ’s residents . Still , some are staying out of loyalty to their hometown . [ exposure courtesy ofRed Fork State of Mind . ]
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harborcontains a Superfund site . in reality , it check 30 hazardous waste material sites where stuff and nonsense has been dumped or spilled over the year : quicksilver - contaminated sediments dredged from the haven , waste oil , leaking landfills , you name it .
Anniston, Alabama
The Cleanup
What does it take to clean up a Superfund site ? It involves dispatch a lot of grease — contaminated turd , that is . It ’s often trickier than it sounds , though . Sometimes the malicious gossip you have to remove is at the bottom of a river , for instance . That ’s the case at the Kalamazoo River Superfund site in Michigan . The project has a cool website where you’re able to look atpictures of the work in progress .
If you mean those yellow haz - mat suits are very fashion forward , then working at a Superfund site might be a perfect job for you . The EPA compiled aphotograph archiveof some of the chicest gum elastic suits ever , mock up at some world - class trash dump . There ’s also a picture of a fish with a neoplasm ( above ) .
To find sites near you by ZIP code code , employ thePollution Locator .
