What is the Superfund
by Rose Albert
Child at Love Canal (Fierce Green Fire)
Outcry from Love Canal
Love Canal in Niagara Falls, NY was intended to be an edenic community for the American dream of middle working class families; however, rampant birth defects and cancers spurred investigation in the 1970s into the land’s previous use as a toxic dumping site. The wastes were never properly contained and thus leached into the soil beneath the schools, homes, and churches. Public outcry and activism prompted the federal government to sign the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980. This law created the Superfund and established a framework through which communities contaminated by industrial pollution could seek action.
Superfund and National Priority List
The Superfund is a trust fund for the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up toxic waste. While contaminated sites can receive emergency clean up funding through the Superfund, a site must receive placement on the National Priority List for long-term funding and clean up. As of July 2020, there are 1335 sites on the National Priority List. To be placed on the National Priority List, a site must either have a hazard ranking score of 28.5, be designated as the state’s number one priority, or receive a health advisory from the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR). Despite these standards, a study published in Environmental Health Perspectives found that placement on the National Priority List was influenced by race and socioeconomic status. The study also posits that easier to clean sites may make it to the National Priority List faster to improve public image of the program for completion of more sites.
35th Avenue Superfund Site (City of Birmingham)
North Birmingham
Such environmental racism is seen clearly in North Birmingham through the 35th Avenue Superfund site. This heavily industrialized area has soil contaminated with lead, arsenic, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHS), has a hazard ranking score of 50 (well above the 28.5 threshold), and received emergency Superfund cleanup in 2011. Despite proposal for the National Priority List in 2014, the site has still not received placement. This study by faculty in the UAB School of Public Health explores environmental justice in North Birmingham, and political opposition and corruption to the cost and potentially responsible parties are also barriers to clean up in North Birmingham.
What can you do?
Email Governor Kay Ivey to take action for North Birmingham
Learn about environmental racism and disaster in your hometown or college town. Some examples in Alabama are air sampling in North Birmingham, the poop train, and this interview with Harriet Washington about Anniston, AL.
Support organizations advocating for change. Local organizations include Gasp and People Against Neighborhood Industrial Contamination (PANIC).
Additional reading