DeRIDDER, La. (CN) — The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it has placed four sites on the Superfund national priorities list, including a creosote-contaminated site near DeRidder, Louisiana.
The American Creosote site is just south of DeRidder in Beauregard Parish, about 50 miles north of Lake Charles, near the Texas border.
Timber was treated with creosote there during the first half of the 20th century, according to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality.
Creosote, a derivative of oil, is used as a preservative and pesticide to protect wood from termite infestation.
The EPA said it considered 10 sites for its Superfund priority list and added four of them.
Also designated were the Newark South Ground Water Plume in Newark, Delaware; Mississippi Phosphates Corporation in Pascagoula; and Eagle Industries in Oklahoma City.
Only sites on the list are eligible to receive federal funding for long-term cleanup.
Sites are typically added to the list after states, tribes or citizens ask for help in cleaning them up.
Three other American Creosote plants are or have been on the Superfund priority list, in Florida, Mississippi and Georgia. More than 1,300 sites are on the list nationally for cleanup.
“Today’s action ensures the necessary resources are available for effective and safe revitalization of some of the most contaminated sites across the country,” EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in a statement.
Superfund was established in 1980 to investigate and clean up hazardous waste sites so they can be converted into community resources. EPA updates the list of sites every year.
Sites are added to the list when their contamination threatens human health and the environment. They are deleted from the list once all response actions have been completed and cleanup goals have been achieved.
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