Proper management and control can greatly reduce the dangers of hazardous waste. Improper management and disposal of hazardous waste in the past created the hazardous waste sites that are now in the Superfund program. Hazardous wastes from a variety of sources have contaminated the ground water at many Superfund sites. This contamination can be caused in different ways. Typically rainfall seeps through the ground, comes in contact with buried waste or other source of contamination, picks up chemicals, and carries them into the ground water.
Some pollutants spread quickly, contaminating ground water several miles from the site.
Polluted ground water may affect drinking water, surface waters, and the people, plants, and animals near the site. Often the first clue that ground water is contaminated is when pollutants from a nearby site are found in local drinking water or monitoring wells. If left unchecked, ground water contamination can continue to spread, increasing the cost of future cleanup, reducing useful water resources, and potentially affecting more people. The Superfund Program strives to restore ground water to beneficial use and prevent any further human exposure to contaminants. This is done by removing or containing the source of the contamination and cleaning up the affected ground water.