Broward Site Makes EPA 'Immediate Attention' Superfund List
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami/NSF) – A 3-acre site in southern Broward County, which a half-century ago housed an oil processing and refining facility, is one of three sites added to a federal Superfund "Administrator's Emphasis List" for "immediate attention and action."
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced Monday that the updated list will include the Petroleum Products Corporation site in Pembroke Park, where contamination from affected soil and groundwater, including the underlying Biscayne Aquifer.
"At the Petroleum Products site, EPA will propose a final remedy to address contaminated soil and its source and will propose an interim remedy for the contaminated groundwater at the site," a press release from the EPA stated.
The area surrounding the site also includes public water well fields for the cities of Hallandale and Hollywood, and a water line connects residences and businesses near the site to the public water supply, according to the federal agency.
Petroleum Products operated on the site from 1957 to 1971. The site was added to the EPA's National Priorities List in 1987.
Since then, the EPA, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, along with Petroleum Products, Pembroke Park Warehouses and the U.S. Navy --- the site's "potentially responsible parties" --- have managed the site.
"The addition of the Petroleum Products Site to the Administrator's Emphasis List reflects EPA's ongoing commitment to addressing Superfund sites in the southeast as quickly and safely as possible," EPA Region 4 Administrator Mary S. Walker said in the release. "Accelerating Superfund site cleanups will greatly benefit communities by returning them to productive use while protecting human health and the environment."
There are 17 sites on the list, while 14 sites have been removed since December 2017 because "short-term milestones" were achieved.
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