EPA Chief Trumpeting ‘Misleading’ Superfund Metrics, Critics Say

The EPA is touting the number of contaminated Superfund sites removed from its priority list—even as newly proposed sites and sites awaiting funding continue to pile up.

In public remarks in recent months, Andrew Wheeler, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has touted the number of deleted or delisted sites, many of which will be finalized in the Federal Register on Wednesday. In the Superfund process, sites that need cleanup are added to the National Priorities List, then removed from the list once the construction of the remedy is completed.

Critics of the EPA’s measures of success ...