Before purchasing property, check the EPA's National Priorities List. It tracks 1,343 contaminated sites awaiting cleanup under the Superfund program. Like flood risk and noise pollution, toxic Superfund sites can be a hidden source of serious issues.
So…
“What is Superfund?
Thousands of contaminated sites exist nationally due to hazardous waste being dumped, left out in the open, or otherwise improperly managed. These sites include manufacturing facilities, processing plants, landfills and mining sites.
In the late 1970s, toxic waste dumps such as Love Canal and Valley of the Drums received national attention when the public learned about the risks to human health and the environment posed by contaminated sites.
In response, Congress established the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) in 1980.
CERCLA is informally called Superfund. It allows EPA to clean up contaminated sites. It also forces the parties responsible for the contamination to either perform cleanups or reimburse the government for EPA-led cleanup work.
When there is no viable responsible party, Superfund gives EPA the funds and authority to clean up contaminated sites.”
Property Value Impact
These superfund sites exist across America, near commercial and residential property. Research shows measurable price effects. Kohlhase (1991) found home values dropped $3,310 for every mile closer to Houston Superfund sites. At the Operating Industries Landfill in Los Angeles, 4,100 homes lost $40 million in combined value. That works out to roughly $10,000 per house (McClelland et al., 1990).
Kiel and Williams (2007) examined 74 sites across 13 counties and found impacts vary by site size, contamination type, and cleanup status. Some sites significantly reduce nearby values, others show minimal impact, and a few correlate with price increases.
Contamination Spreads
Groundwater contamination migrates beyond site boundaries. Lead appears at 43% of Superfund sites, trichloroethylene at 42%, arsenic at 28% (ATSDR, 1989). Sites uphill or upstream pose a higher risk to neighboring properties through groundwater flow.
Cleanup Timeline
The Superfund trust fund emptied in 2003 after Congress let the polluter tax expire in 1995. Completed cleanups dropped from 20 sites in 2009 to 8 in 2014 (GAO, 2015). The 2021 Infrastructure Act reauthorized the chemical excise tax (effective July 2022) at double the previous rate and allocated $3.5 billion in emergency funding.
Recovery timelines are lengthy. Hurd (2002) found properties near the OII Landfill took 10 years post-cleanup to recover 80% of lost value. The Dallas lead smelter took 32 years from discovery (1972) to completed remediation (2004).
Geography
New Jersey holds 10% of priority Superfund sites despite being the fifth-smallest state. Communities within one mile of sites are 44% minority versus 37% nationally (O'Neil, 2007).
Due Diligence
Before every purchase, check three databases: the EPA's National Priorities List at epa.gov/superfund, your state environmental agency's records, and local brownfield registries. ■
— Real Estate Investing Intelligence
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References: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (1989). The Nature and Extent of Lead Poisoning in Children in the United States: A Report to Congress. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Braithwaite, R.L., Taylor, S.E., & Treadwell, H.M. (2009). Health Issues in the Black Community (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Bullard, R. (2012). The Wrong Complexion for Protection: How the Government Response to Disaster Endangers African American Communities. New York: NYU Press.
Hurd, B. (2002). Valuing superfund site cleanup: Evidence of recovering stigmatized property values. Appraisal Journal, 70(4), 426-437.
Kiel, K.A., & Williams, M. (2007). The impact of Superfund sites on local property values: Are all sites the same? Journal of Urban Economics, 61(1), 170-192.
Kohlhase, J.E. (1991). The impact of toxic waste sites on housing values. Journal of Urban Economics, 30(1), 1-26.
McClelland, G.H., Schulze, W.D., & Hurd, B. (1990). The effect of risk beliefs on property values: A case study of a hazardous waste site. Risk Analysis, 10(4), 485-497.
O'Neil, S.G. (2007). Superfund: Evaluating the impact of Executive Order 12898. Environmental Health Perspectives, 115(7), 1087-1093.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2024). Redevelopment Economics at Superfund Sites: 2024 Beneficial Effects. Office of Land and Emergency Management.
U.S. Government Accountability Office (2015). Superfund: Trends in federal funding and cleanup of EPA's nonfederal National Priorities List sites (GAO-15-812).
Other Superfund resources:
"My house is in a Superfund site": The story of East Chicago’s lead crisis
Hundreds of toxic sites await cleanup under Superfund program (PBS)
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