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Sonford Products Site in Flowood, Miss., Proposed for Addition to EPA's Superfund National Priorities List

Release Date: 09/26/2006
Contact Information: Laura Niles, (404) 562-8353, [email protected]

(ATLANTA – September 26, 2006) The Sonford Products Site in Flowood, Mississippi has been proposed for addition to EPA’s National Priorities List (NPL) of hazardous waste sites. It is one of six hazardous waste sites to be proposed for addition to the NPL, while five sites are being added to the list. That brings the total of final sites on the list to 1,246. NPL sites are the most serious sites across the country that have been identified for possible long-term cleanup by EPA's Superfund program.

The former Sonford Products Site is about 6 acres in size and located at 3506 Payne Drive in Flowood, Miss. From 1972 to 1985, two separate chemical processing plants operated at the property; Sonford International and Sonford Products. The operations of both businesses involved turning solid pentachlorophenol (PCP) into liquid formations. Sonford Products also produced pesticide products and products that controlled the growth of mold and sap in freshly cut lumber. Operations on-site ceased following a 2,000 gallon spill of PCP at the Sonford Products property in April 1985.

With all Superfund sites, EPA tries to identify and locate the parties potentially responsible for the contamination. Historically, through EPA’s enforcement program, approximately 70 percent of Superfund cleanups have been performed by the parties responsible for site contamination. For the newly listed sites without viable potentially responsible parties, EPA will investigate the full extent of the contamination before starting significant cleanup at the site. Therefore, it may be several years before significant cleanup funding is required for these sites.

Sites may be placed on the list through various mechanisms:

n Numeric ranking established by EPA’s Hazard Ranking System.
n Designation by states or territories of one top-priority site.
n Meeting all three of the following requirements:
o The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) of the U.S. Public Health Service has issued a health advisory that recommends removing people from the site;
o EPA determines the site poses a significant threat to public health; and
o EPA anticipates it will be more cost-effective to use its remedial authority than to use its emergency removal authority to respond to the site.

For information on the other final and proposed sites: http://epa.gov/superfund/news/npl_092706.htm