An effort to put Superfund cleanup work in what Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt says is the program’s “rightful place at the center of [EPA’s] core mission,” could help speed the approval process necessary to clean up the nation’s 1,300 most critical hazardous waste sites.
In a major shift, Pruitt announced on May 9 that he will be directly responsible for approving plans at Superfund sites where cleanup costs are estimated at $50 million or more. That authority had been delegated to an assistant administrator, a position that is unfilled. The change in authority was effective immediately.