The US Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to remove parts of a former smelter and lead battery ‘superfund’ site from a list of the nation’s ‘most contaminated’ locations.

The EPA said on August 19 it wanted to partially delete portions of the US Smelter and Lead Refining (USS Lead) site in Indiana, after extensive clean-up showed the areas concerned no longer posed a significant risk to public health.

EPA’s announcement came as it confirmed the deletion of all or part of eight superfund sites — a federal government programme designed to fund the cleanup of National Priorities List sites contaminated with hazardous substances and pollutants.

The agency will accept comments on the USS Lead and two other partial deletion proposals over the next month.

USS Lead has been on the superfund list since 2009. Between 1972 and 1973, the plant was converted (from copper smelting) to operate exclusively as a secondary lead smelter, recovering lead from car batteries and other sources of secondary lead. 

Operations ceased in 1985. The EPA had said previously that while USS Lead was a significant contributor to contamination in the area, investigations indicated that other facilities were also significant sources of contamination to the surrounding residential area.

EPA deputy administrator David Fotouhi said: “Milestones like those we’re celebrating show that our work to find concrete solutions to clean up sites effectively and efficiently is working. We look forward to growing the number of deleted sites over the next few years.” 

Batteries International reported earlier this year that the EPA was reviewing cleanup work at USS Lead and other superfund sites.