Millions at Risk of Superfund Pollution Due to Climate Change

Nearly a third of the US’s most polluted federal sites are at risk of being inundated by sea-level rise or storm surges, endangering millions of residents, the EPA’s internal watchdog said in a report released Tuesday.

Most of the at-risk federal facility Superfund sites are clustered in the Chesapeake Bay, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Washington’s Puget Sound region, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General.

If cleanup remedies at those sites fail or are damaged, contaminants could escape and spread into the environment. That could threaten the health, jobs, and environment of millions of residents, ...