In not one, but two proposed regulations, the Environmental Protection Agency is adding new sites to the National Priorities List. Maybe one of them is in your home town!

Our congratulations go out to:

• Iron King Mine–Humboldt Smelter in Dewey-Humboldt, AZ
• Nelson Tunnel/Commodore Waste Rock in Creede, CO
• Flash Cleaners in Pompano Beach, FL
• Aberdeen Contaminated Ground Water in Aberdeen, NC
• East Troy Contaminated Aquifer in Troy, OH
• Old Esco Manufacturing in Greenville, TX

and to:

• B.F. Goodrich in Rialto, CA
• Raleigh Street Dump in Tampa, FL
• Arkla Terra Property in Thonotosassa,FL
• U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery, Inc. in East Chicago, IN
• Curtis Papers, Inc. in Milford, NJ
• Behr Dayton Thermal System VOC Plume in Dayton, OH
• New Carlisle Landfill in New Carlisle, OH
• Borit Asbestos Tailings Pile in Ambler, PA
• Barite Hill/Nevada Goldfields in McCormick, SC
• U.S. Magnesium in Tooele County, UT

Well, perhaps it’s not congratulations these places should be getting.

There is this thing called the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan. It’s required by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (known as “CERCLA” to us insiders), and it includes a list of national priorities among the known releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants throughout the United States.

This is the National Priorities List, and the EPA uses it to decide which sites warrant further investigation for public health and environmental risks associated with the site and to determine what the EPA might do about it.

So evidently being put on this list is some part of cleaning up toxics, but it’s quite complicated, bureaucratic, and dense. But our congratulations - er, condolences - go out to the new members of the list!

(The Environmental Protection Agency is funded through the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill. Alas, the bill for FY 2009 hasn’t been introduced in either House of Congress yet - even though the new fiscal year starts in less than a month!)