Document 29LOe9NQoeBdMEJgbw8bzjYa

s-3 t5 A12 Greensboro Daily News, Sat., Oct. 24, 1981 met RALEIGH (AP) -- North Carolina is among 44 states! , one project in each state, then allocate the rest of the mon d territories that will split $1.6 billion to clean up hazard- ': ey based on priority.. . cfiis wastes, the Environmental Protection Agency -an-," iiounced Friday. . " . ' .The EPA.said the money will-be used to help clean up multiple spills of hazardous PCB chemicals along 210 miles He said an environmental impact, study estimated. it would cost $2mIIlion:to $2.5 million to clean up North Caro lina's roadsides. He said the money will be spent on cleanup in all 14 counties affected. ' of state roadsides. _ - ...... . The state was in the last group on the list of the 114 worst hazardous waste sites in the country, ranked, by priority of importance. - : - -- . ^ Robert E. "Buck" Ward, owner of Ward Transformer Co. in Raleigh, was sentenced to 2z years in prison and fined $200,000 earlier this year after he was convicted ille gal dumping of PCB-laced oil from transformers. Three - O.W. Strickland, head of North Carolina's solid and New York men who worked with Ward also were sentenced hazardous wastes program, said he was notified Friday as a result of the chemical spills. morning that North Carolina was on the list. A $12.5 million suit filed by the state to recover clean Strickland said no funds have been allocated yet, and up costs is pending. . he does not know how much North Carolina will receive. PCBs, also known as polychlorinated biphenyls, are He said he was told by federal officials that they will pay for used in transformers. The chemical has been linked to' can-. cer in humans. Signs have been posted along the shoulders * . The Superfund was established by Congress in DecemLl j of affected roads to warn motorists. ; - . The release of the list was the first step in the five-year ber 1980 in response to a public outcry over such disaster!'' * .! as the Love Canal in New York, where hundreds of families * . were forced to evacuate their homes because of leakage federal cleanup program. ' from an abandoned-dump-site. . " .. . "The 114 waste dumps nationwide were judged by the 'The .fund will provide .money to aid in cleaning upvthe ^ i 'EPA to pose, the greatest potential threat'to public health wrorst of an estimated' 9,600 abandoned and. current dumpC and therefore were put on this priority list to obtain money sites that-officials fear represent health .threats, to the ^ .] from the $1.6 billion "Superfund" established by Congress public. rV':V. Tg- , w 1 j last year..,- . " 7~ * . . -.. ... EPA officials said the 114 sites announced Friday wefe^ ` EPA Administrator Anne Gorsuch, who has been criti cized by environmentalists for delay in using the fund, said the priority list represented a "milestone" in implementing the program. She said it showed that the Reagan adminis tration was "committed to the cleanup of hazardous waste sites as quickly and effectively as possible." selected through'a "hazard-scoring system," which ratedf; ^ the dumps as to their potential public health threat and?^ -] pollution dangers. ' v 7?^?^ 7 . The 114 sites were chosen from an initial list of 282^-i recommended for cleanup action this summer by the states3,H and EPA's.10 regional offices. '` v r ,t*"' PCB-ARCH-EXT0378541