SUPERFUNDS

(Mini Project #5)

This week's assignment was to find the closest Superfund Site to my home. What is a Superfund? Very simply, it is a site that has become environmentally hazardous. When this occurs the EPA or the Environmental Protection Agency labels these sites SUPERFUNDS. When an area receives this label it means that it is extremely toxic! These sites have been known to release toxins into the atmosphere or the groundwater, which results in exposure to humans, animals, or agriculture.

Prior to my search I figured what and where the Superfund would be as it is the area near my grandmother's home. Upon my search I validated my guess as fact and found that the closest Superfund to me is :

Facility Name:
WINGATE ROAD MUNICIPAL INCINERATOR DUMP

Location Address:
1300 N. W. 34TH AVENUE
Supplemental Address:
1300 N. W. 34TH AVENUE
City Name:
FORT LAUDERDALE
State
FL
County Name:
BROWARD
ZIP/Postal Code:
33311
EPA Region:
04
Congressional District Number:
23

This site is a sixty acre stretch of land that became contaminated with hazardous waste as a result of the City of Ft. Lauderdale's operation of a landfill and incinerators on the property.

According to documents filed with the United States court of Appeals (11/5/02) in the case of Broward County Tenants Association (and other listed individuals) vs. United States Environmental Protection Agency(and others listed), from 1954 to 1978, the city used the property to operate a landfill and incinerators, causing it to become contaminated with, among other things, arsenic and dioxin. The city never conducted a health study of the site during all those years of operation.

Later in 1989, EPA conducted initial studies of Wingate and added it to the National Priorities List (NPL), a list of hazardous waste sites for which the cleanup was a high priority. A year later, the Florida Department of Health conducted a preliminary study which demonstrated that cancer levels in Broward County were higher in areas surrounding Wingate than any part of the county.(To view this document in its entirety go to:

http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/200115117.opn.pdf)

In addition, a local10.com news story from 4/16/02 reports that residents cite high infant mortality rate. More specifically, 56 children in the area were stillborn in 2001.

As stated, this Superfund is near my grandmother's home. She is 85 and a residence of the neighboring area (now Lauderhill) since 1964. Fortunately she is doing great, however my grandfather passed of colon cancer a few years ago.