OFFICE OF SOLID WASTE 

AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE

PROTECTING & RESTORING LAND 

Making a Visible Difference in Communities

OSWER FY14 End of Year

Accomplishments Report 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Message from the Assistant Administrator

In Fiscal Year 2014 (FY14), the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency 

Response (OSWER) had a productive year of cleaning up contaminated 

sites and properties in order to protect human health and the environment 

and revitalize neighborhoods. OSWER also helped ensure the safety and 

preparedness of communities in the event of an oil spill or chemical 

accident—all while promoting responsible recycling and the preservation 

of valuable resources. 

This year’s report presents OSWER achievements and offers education and resources in order to 

provide context to OSWER’s work. With 51% of America’s population living near a superfund, 

brownfield, or RCRA corrective action site, OSWER cleanup programs demonstrate not only the 

importance of protecting human health, but the economic value of environmental cleanups. By 

2050, our use of energy and natural resources is expected to increase by as much as 300%, which 

can have an adverse effect on communities, human health, and local economies. In response, 

OSWER is leading the effort to reduce materials and energy use through our sustainable materials management initiative. With an estimated 600,000 chemical facilities located around the country, OSWER’s emergency management programs have been and continue to partner with local 

leaders to ensure the safety of communities, and prevention of harmful releases and accidents.

Our accomplishments are not possible without the collaboration and support of partners around 

the country: As co-regulators, states continue to be important partners in pursuing the protection of families and the environment. Additionally, many leaders in local, tribal and business 

communities, as well as federal agency partners and EPA staff, relentlessly implement and advocate for OSWER’s transformative programs. I want to thank all of our stakeholders and partners 

for their commitment to OSWER’s mission.

We are poised for another great year and I am excited about the positive impact we will continue 

to have on the lives of millions around the country.

 Mathy Stanislaus

 OSWER Assistant Administrator

The complete 

document is 

available at 

OSWER's 

website.
1

Introduction

I

n FY14, the U.S. Environmental 

Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office 

of Solid Waste and Emergency 

Response (OSWER) staff and their 

regional colleagues worked steadfastly in communities across America –

cleaning up Superfund sites; responding to emergencies; assisting tribes, 

state and local governments in the 

cleanup and redevelopment of 

brownfields and underground storage 

tank sites; encouraging innovative 

and energy-efficient materials use 

and reuse; and establishing protections for the management of hazardous waste. 

OSWER’s FY14 Accomplishments 

Report includes highlights of the 

many on-the-ground activities that are 

performed every day in communities 

across the country under the two 

broad goals of OSWER’s work, 

Preserving Land and Resources and 

Restoring Land. The full report is 

available at http://www2.epa.gov/

aboutepa/about-office-solid-wasteand-emergency-response-oswer and 

provides a more comprehensive 

picture of the diverse programs and 

efforts underway in OSWER. 

Addressing the complex environmental 

challenges facing us today is a shared 

responsibility. Many of the activities 

highlighted here and in the full report 

that improve the health of American 

families and protect the environment 

would not be possible without a partnership with state and tribal co-regulators, local governments, communities, 

and the regulated community.
2

Preserving Land & Resources

Challenge

Land itself is a finite resource. As a 

result, preventing its contamination 

and preserving critical resources 

that rely on available land is vital to 

creating healthy and vibrant communities and ecosystems. Improper or 

accidental releases of contaminants 

and pollutants from facilities threaten nearby communities and ecosystems. For example, discharges of oil 

into water or on land; accidents at 

chemical facilities; or improperly 

stored or treated wastes may threaten 

human health or result in injury, 

death, environmental damage, and 

financial loss. Furthermore, our 

growing population’s increased 

demand for goods and services is 

placing greater pressure on land and 

the other finite resources it supports, 

underscoring the need to preserve 

and reuse them. 

OSWER, in partnership with our state 

co-regulators, currently oversees 

approximately 640,000 facilities 

through its Spill Prevention, Control 

and Countermeasure program and 

roughly 1.3 million facilities in total to 

prevent releases into communities.

Programs Addressing 

This Challenge

EPA works collaboratively with states, 

local governments, other federal 

agencies, and communities to preserve 

land and other resources. EPA works to 

ensure that materials, both hazardous 

and non-hazardous, are controlled and 

managed responsibly. To accomplish 

this, EPA permits, inspects and 

monitors facilities or requires proper 

planning to ensure that anyone who 

generates, recycles, transports, treats, 

stores, or disposes of potential contaminants is meeting standards that protect 

human health and the environment. 

In addition, EPA works to preserve 

resources and encourage responsible 

consumption and usage. This includes 

advancing sustainable, lifecycle waste 

and material management approaches.

OSWER and its partners 

oversee approximately 

640,000 to 1,319,000 

facilitites to prevent releases into communities.
3

Preserving Land & Resources

OSWER PREVENTION & 

PREPAREDNESS PROGRAMS

• Resource Conservation and 

Recovery Act (RCRA) Solid 

Waste Program

• RCRA Hazardous Waste Program

• Underground Storage Tank (UST) 

Program

• Oil Spill Program

• Chemical Emergency Preparedness 

and Prevention Program

MANAGING MATERIALS 

SUSTAINABLY HIGHLIGHTS

• Diverted 375,000 tons of food from 

landfills, preventing landfill greenhouse gas emissions equal to taking 

85,000 cars off the road. (Food 

Recovery Challenge participants) 

• Diverted more than 220,000 metric 

tons of used electronics to third-party certified electronics recyclers, 

avoiding nearly 580,000 metric tons 

of CO2, the equivalent to power 

more than 52,800 U.S. homes for one 

year. (Electronics Challenge) 

• Reduced the environmental footprint of more than 400 federal 

facilities by diverting 523,000 tons 

of waste from landfills, saving tax 

payers an estimated $42 million. 

(Federal Green Challenge

participants) 

• Completed Agency-wide plan to 

provide solid waste management 

capacity assistance to tribes to 

promote the development and 

implementation of integrated waste 

management. 

MANAGING HAZARDOUS 

WASTE HIGHLIGHTS

• Issued the E-Manifest One Year 

Rule to authorize the use of electronic hazardous waste manifests. 

This allows the current process 

(which requires paper forms) to be 

streamlined, greatly reducing the 

millions of paper manifests produced each year. 

• Issued technical guidance to promote compliance with PCB export 

requirements to reduce any hazards 

associated with PCBs in former U.S. 

ships when they are recycled in 

developing countries. 

• Approved or updated controls at 

129 hazardous waste facilities to 

ensure compliance with waste 

management standards that prevent 

releases. To date, permits and other 

enforceable controls have been put 

in place to prevent dangerous 

releases at over 20,000 RCRA 

process units. Preventing releases 

also provides cost savings, as a 

typical RCRA corrective action to 

address a release into the environment can cost $100,000 or more. 
4

Preserving Land & Resources

PREVENTING OIL & 

PETROLEUM RELEASES 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Increased to 72.5 percent the 

number of UST facilities that were 

in significant operational compliance. EPA engaged in rigorous 

underground storage tank prevention efforts and worked with the 

states to implement tools from the 

Energy Policy Act of 2005. 

REDUCING RISK AT CHEMICAL 

FACILITIES HIGHLIGHTS

• EPA took critical steps to implement the 2013 Executive Order 

Improving Chemical Facility Safety 

and Security by working with 

federal regulatory representatives 

and stakeholders with a vested 

interest in reducing the risks 

associated with the handling and 

storage of chemicals. 

• As part of a multi-agency working 

group, released the final report to the 

President highlighting progress and 

providing a plan to support and 

enable states and local communities 

to improve chemical facility safety.

• An integrated standard operating 

procedure template for a unified 

federal approach was developed for 

identifying and responding to risks 

at chemical facilities. 

• A pilot program was established in 

EPA’s Region 2 to develop standard 

operating procedures for a unified 

federal, state, and local approach for 

identifying and responding to risks 

at chemical facilities and to develop 

a plan to improve operational 

coordination. These procedures are 

now used as a model for other 

regions across the nation.

• Published a Request for Information 

on the risk management program 

(RMP) in July 2014 that describes 

and requests stakeholder feedback 

on 19 potential modifications to 

streamline the program and improve 

safety requirements. 

Accidents Reported at RMP Facilities 

The number of accidents at RMP facilities decreased 

from a high of 473 in 1998 to 238 in 2008. However, 

we continue to see tragic impacts from accidents 

at RMP facilities. From 2009 to 2013, RMP facilities 

reported accidents resulting in the following: 

• 25 deaths 

• 859 injuries 

• 179,712 people sheltering in place 

• approximately $1 billion in on and off site damages. 

Moreover, of the approximately 12,500 currently 

regulated RMP facilities, EPA is only able to inspect 

less than 4 percent a year. 
5

Restoring Land 

Challenge

Accidents, spills, leaks, releases and 

past improper disposal and handling 

of hazardous materials and wastes 

have resulted in tens of thousands 

of contaminated sites in the United 

States. Substances commonly found 

on contaminated sites have been 

linked to a variety of human health 

problems, such as birth defects, 

cancer, and changes in neuro-behavioral functions. 

Contaminated land can hamper 

economic growth and the vitality of 

local communities. OSWER’s land 

cleanup programs track more than 

540,000 sites and almost 23 million 

acres. More than 51 percent of the U.S. 

population lives within three miles of 

a superfund, brownfields, or RCRA 

corrective action site. Using Census 

data, EPA found that the communities 

near these sites are more likely to be 

minority and lower income, and 

residents of these communities are 

less likely to have a high school 

education compared to the U.S. 

population. As a result, these commu¬nities may have fewer resources 

to address concerns about their health 

and environment. 

Programs Addressing 

This Challenge

EPA works collaboratively with our 

federal, state, tribal, and local partners 

to assess, clean up, and promote the 

reuse of sites. The cleanup program 

that becomes involved at a particular 

site or release is based on the level and 

type of contamination. Emergency 

response relies on a complex system 

of responsibilities that are spread 

across federal, state, and local governments, depending upon the size and 

type of emergency. 

OSWER CLEANUP & REUSE 

PROGRAMS

• Superfund Emergency Response and 

Removal Program

• Superfund Remedial and Federal 

Facilities Programs

• Brownfields Program

• RCRA Corrective Action Program

• PCB Cleanup Program

• Leaking Underground Storage Tank 

Program

Superfund cleanups 

reduce congenital 

anomalies in infants 

of mothers living within 

2 km (1.2 miles) of a 

site by roughly 20-25 

percent.

COMMUNITIES WITHIN 

3 MILES OF OSWER 

SITES INCLUDE:

50%

of all children in 

the U.S. under 18

62%

of all minorities 

in the U.S. 

58%

of all households in the U.S. 

below the poverty level

54%

of all people with less than 

a high school education 

in the U.S. 
6

Restoring Land 

PREPARING FOR AND 

RESPONDING TO 

EMERGENCIES HIGHLIGHTS

• Conducted more than 300 removal 

actions responding to emergencies 

from natural disasters, train derailments, releases of hazardous substances, and other causes. Examples 

include:

° Recovered 35 cars, 329 propane 

tanks, 259 refrigerators and 

freezers, and more than 9,000 

containers of hazardous waste after 

the historic flood in Boulder 

County, Colorado. 

° Recovered and responsibly disposed of more than 100 tons of 

hazardous materials from abandoned wrecks in the Oakland 

estuary in Oakland, California.

° Investigated possible uranium 

mine drainage into the Grand 

Canyon in Grand Canyon Village, 

Arizona by using EPA’s Airborne 

Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology. This 

collaboration with the National Park 

Service provided better knowledge 

of the area and hazards, allowing for 

a more effective response.

The three stages of the cleanup 

process, referred to as the cleanup 

continuum, are used in this section to 

describe our activities and progress.

The cleanup continuum is:

• Starting cleanups – focusing on 

site identification and assessment 

activitites in the early stages of the 

cleanup continuum.

• Advancing cleanups – emphasizing coordination activities and 

activities intended to assure that 

unacceptable human exposures are 

eliminated as soon as possible 

while site cleanup progresses. 

• Completing cleanups and reusing 

sites – achieving the goal of 

providing long-term human health 

and environmental protection, and 

promoting land revitalization to 

return sites to communities for 

their intended use. 

STARTING CLEANUPS 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Worked with other federal agencies 

and the Navajo nation to assess 520 

mines, 800 homes, and 240 drinking 

water wells for contamination as a 

result of abandoned uranium mines.

• Published a compilation of ideas 

and lessons learned from the first 

round of 23 Brownfields Area-Wide 

Planning grants to provide information to other brownfield communities. These grantees leveraged more 

than $418 million in federal, state, 

local and private investments to 

help clean, redevelop, and revitalize 

their brownfields project areas.

• Released the Pilot Framework for 

Integrating Community Health and 

Wellness into the Superfund Reuse 

Assessment Process, which provides a 

structure for integrating health, 

prevention and wellness into Superfund reuse assessment to better 

identify options for future land use. 

ECONOMIC BENEFITS 

OF CLEANUP

As of the end of FY14, 450 

Superfund sites actively being 

reused support approximately 

3,470 businesses that generate combined annual sales 

over $31 billion and employ 

over 89,000 people. In addition, the Brownfields Program 

has leveraged a total of 

102,740 jobs and $21.6 billion, 

while making 47,049 acres of 

land ready for reuse.

Two separate peer reviewed national studies found 

that residential property values near sites increased 

18.6-24.5 percent as a result of superfund cleanup, 

and 5-11.5 percent as a result of brownfields cleanup. 
7

Restoring Land 

• Completed 1,659 brownfields 

property assessments and 794 

superfund remedial site assessments. 

ADVANCING CLEANUPS 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Developed tools to help local 

brownfields grantees and superfund 

site managers identify vulnerabilities 

and strategies to make cleanup 

remedies more resilient to climate 

change impacts. 

• Removed more than 15 million tons 

of waste from the demolition and 

cleanup of hundreds of contaminated buildings and sites at the Hanford 

Reservation Superfund site along the 

Columbia River. By the end of FY14, 

80 percent of the cleanup along the 

river was completed.

COMPLETING CLEANUPS & 

REUSING SITES HIGHLIGHTS

• Advanced the Administration’s 

Insourcing Manufacturing Initiative 

supporting the recovery of manufacturing communities. Community 

leaders identified their community 

revitalization challenges and worked 

with federal and state agency officials 

to discuss potential solutions. 

• Cleaned up a former Navy site near 

Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota 

and made it ready for beneficial use. 

EPA removed the portion of the site 

that had contained unsaturated soils 

from the national priorities list, 

with the exception of soils under a 

former Plating Shop Area.

• Transformed a portion of a former 

chemical manufacturing site in 

Charlotte, North Carolina into the 

Southeast region’s first eco-industrial 

park. Existing site infrastructure 

provides a platform for large-scale 

renewable energy and alternative fuel 

projects and the site’s natural resources have been enhanced by a 185-acre 

conservation easement area. 

• To date more than 135 renewable 

energy installations on 128 contaminated lands, landfills, and mine sites, 

have been installed, providing multiple environmental, economic, and 

community benefits from a landfill 

or formerly contaminated site. 

Go to OSWER's website

for the full report: http://

www2.epa.gov/aboutepa/

about-office-solid-waste-andemergency-response-oswer

ving 

Impro

Students participating in Tucson, Arizona’s Brownfields Job Training Program

8-1429

J, NY, PR, VI

37-3283

, MD, PA, VA, WV

4-3246

, KY, MS, NC, SC, TN

62-8660 

MI, MN, OH, WI

86-4747

A, NM, OK, TX

65-6682 

65-3172

, KS, MO, NE

51-7357 

T, ND, SD, UT, WY

2-6019

A, HI, NV, AS, GU

44-1821 

72-3270

K, ID, OR, WA

53-6378

lid Waste 

d Emergency 

sponse (5105T)

 EPA-560-F-11-019 

March 2011

www.epa.gov/brownfields