WASHINGTON, D.C. May 18, 2007 — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been reluctant to reveal critical information about 114 toxic waste sites where dangerous and possible cancer-causing substances could harm nearby residents, according to an ongoing Center for Public Integrity investigation, "Wasting Away: Superfund's Toxic Legacy."

More than 25 million people live within 10 miles of these sites and more than 100 schools are located within one mile, a Center analysis of government records and 2000 U.S. Census data shows. Scientists and local activists say that health threats posed by the sites have been downplayed and cleanup plans have been designed to serve polluting companies’ interests rather than protect surrounding communities.

Despite two years of Congressional requests, the EPA has yet to release site information that ranks which are the most dangerous, plans for addressing health threats, a timetable and funding needs for each cleanup. Also at issue is whether the agency is investigating 181 more sites nationwide for which the agency says it has “insufficient data” to determine uncontrolled risks for humans.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., now chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, was on the Subcommittee on Superfund and Waste Management when it called its first oversight hearing in over four years in June 2006. She complained then about the quality, confidentiality and delayed nature of the EPA’s response to repeated requests for its plans for dealing with the sites.

“It is really stunning to see the casual way EPA treats the public’s right to know,” Boxer said. “Many of the documents I have asked for at these sites, especially those relating to timing of cleanup, funding shortfalls and related tasks are stamped ‘PRIVILEGED’ across the whole page in bright red ink.”

David Carpenter, an environmental health professor at the University of Albany in New York, told the Center, “The number of sites posing health risks is very much greater than the list that you’ve found,” and includes places that are not even on the EPA’s National Priorities List, which the agency considers the most hazardous.

One of these sites is in Anniston, Ala., considered one of the most polluted areas in the country, where for 40 years Monsanto Co. discharged contaminated wastewater that was exposed to neighboring residents. The Center visited Anniston and filmed interviews with residents who tell of the toll on their health and community.

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