On this page: About the National Data | Methodology | History
About the National Data
Data
Data Source: Superfund Enterprise Management System (SEMS), EPA
Baseline: 83.8 percent of Superfund Environmental Indicator sites where human exposure is known to be under control in 2018
Target: 87.3 percent
Methodology
Methodology notes
EPA staff complete a flow chart and questionnaire based on data and conclusions from Superfund documents such as Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Studies (RI/FS) reports, Records of Decision (RODs), Action Memoranda, POLREPS, Remedial Action (RA) Reports, Close Out Reports, Five-Year Reviews, Deletion Notices, etc., which are known and reliable sources of information. EPA staff document these sources of information used to make the evaluation in SEMS. The data is compiled for the EPA's Report on the Environment (ROE) by EPA's Office of Superfund Remediation and Technology Innovation, who collects the following information on each site:
- Contaminant concentrations in media (e.g., air, water, land, sediment, biota)
- Site-specific observations regarding human exposure via exposure pathways
- Findings from human health risk assessments
It is indicated whether there are complete exposure pathways between contaminated media and current human receptors (exposure assessment) and, if so, whether the complete exposure pathways represent unacceptable risk (risk characterization).
EPA tracks exposure indicators at each Superfund site. These indicators are classified into three categories:
- Current human exposures not under control
- Current human exposures under control
- Insufficient data
The third category covers sites that have been classified as having "insufficient data" to make a determination.
For more information see Superfund Remedial Performance Measures.
History
1. Effect size h=0.1 was chosen to correspond with 10% improvement from a baseline of 50%.