U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) this week commended the addition of a West Virginia site to the federal Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) of locations where hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants are being released.
Sen. Capito on Monday joined Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler in Minden, West Virginia, to announce that the agency is adding seven sites to the NPL, including Minden’s Shaffer Equipment/Arbuckle Creek Area.
“This was a real group effort, and I’m so glad that we are finally seeing this site make it on the Superfund priority list,” Sen. Capito said. “It’s taken some work to get us here.”
The NPL includes sites having the worst releases of contamination, according to the EPA, which uses the list to prioritize long-term, permanent Superfund cleanup funding and enforcement actions.
“We’ve worked closely with Administrator Wheeler and many others at EPA to make this happen for a while now and this is an important designation,” said Sen. Capito about the Shaffer Equipment/Arbuckle Creek Area. According to the EPA, soils and sediment in that area were contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) used by the Shaffer Equipment Co. from 1970 to 1984 to manufacture electrical substations for the local coal mining industry.
The company stored damaged equipment on the property, the EPA said, where subsequent leaks, possible spills and dumping contributed to PCB contamination that also washed into nearby Arbuckle Creek.
Now that the Minden site will be added to the NPL, Capito said the administration is acknowledging the work that needs to be done.
“It’s also a commitment from the federal government — a commitment of attention and resources and a commitment to provide more financial and technical assistance to clean up this site and any lingering PCB pollution in the surrounding area,” she said.
The senator also said the site’s Superfund designation is beneficial for her home-state constituents because it “also means delivering a new sense of safety and certainty to all those who call Minden home, and it means providing for the health and well-being of West Virginians.”