Environmental program Essay

Superfund is an environmental program formed to address neglectful hazardous waste sites. It is also established by the amended all-inclusive environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980. The law was enacted in the summit of the discovery of dumps of toxic wastes in the 1970. The law permits the Environmental breastplate Agency (EPA) to scant(p) up such hazardous locations and to require obligated companies/persons to do clean up or compensate the government for EPA-initiated kills. The Superfund cleanup procedure is intricate.It starts on the assessment of the sites and placing them on the National Priorities List, past top cleanups on them. Located at 4109 West Linebaugh Avenue in Tampa, Hillsborough County, Florida, the grey Solvents, Inc. served as a delivery and trade point for tetrachloroethylene. The chemical, which is also cognise as perchloroethylene or PCE was stored in four aboveground storage tanks in the quick-wittedness from 1977 to 1985. T he facility distributed the chemicals for dry cleaners located within the area. From 1985 to 1989 the facility was leased to P.J. s Spa and recently leased to a mercantile painting company. The whole property of grey Solvents, Inc. is about 100 feet extensive and 185 feet deep. When the company is still in operations, the aboveground tanks were individually filled from oil well tanks that brought the chemicals to the facility. One former tank had a capacity of 3,000 gallons while the sizing of the other three is still unknown. It is believed that leaks and spills of tetrachloroethylene happened while the tanks are organism filled and emptied.The tetrachloroethylene that spilled and leaked was not contained and eventually goes down into the nearby blonde soil. In 1988, when the facilitys drinking wet well and some(prenominal) private drinking swell nearby, it was positive contamination of tetrachloroethylene and related compounds of trichloroethylene and 1,2-dichloroethan. Th e Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services advise right away the residents within the area to stop using water system from these wells and supplied bottled water to owners and tenants in the area.The Florida Cites Water Department and the Northwest Hillsborough County Utilities have four wells that draw water from an aquifer within 4 miles of Southern Solvents facility. They provide water supply to more than 46,000 people in St. Petersburg, Hillsborough County, and nearby communities. As earlier as 1994, EPA conducted preliminary assessment of the site and its threat to the community. On July 27, 2000, Southern Solvents site was placed on the National Priorities List (NPL).Various studies then undergoes since the signing of the Superfund Contract that commits the State for 10 percent of the cost for the clean up. Until now, there are only initial steps of chemical oxidation studies and soil vapor extractions are done into the site.ReferenceEnvironmental trade prot ection Agency, Florida. (2009, March 20). Southern Solvents. Retrieved March 24, 2009, from http//www. dep. state. fl. us/waste/quick_topics/publications/ wc/sites/summary/141. pdf Environmental Protection Agency, United States. (2009, January 30). Superfund. Retrieved March 24, 2009, from http//www. epa. gov/superfund/about. htm