Superfund Sites Near Me — A Home Buyer's Guide to EPA Tools

Searching "Superfund sites near me" before buying a house? Use two free EPA tools: the Superfund site search, which lists National Priorities List (NPL) sites by state with links to each site's cleanup profile, and Cleanups in My Community, an interactive map that also shows brownfields, RCRA corrective action facilities, and leaking underground storage tanks around any address. As a rule of thumb borrowed from the professional due-diligence standard, pay attention to NPL and major hazardous-waste cleanup sites within about one mile of the property, and leaking tank sites within about half a mile — then read the site profile to see whether contamination is contained, migrating in groundwater, or already cleaned up.

What a Superfund Site Actually Is

Superfund is the common name for the federal program created by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980. It gives the EPA authority to investigate and clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances — old chemical plants, landfills, smelters, military facilities, dry-cleaner solvent plumes — and to make polluters pay for the work.

The National Priorities List (NPL) is the subset of sites serious enough to qualify for long-term federal cleanup. As of early 2026 there are more than 1,300 final NPL sites nationwide, plus a few dozen proposed sites awaiting listing; the EPA updates the list on a rolling basis. Some sites are also handled under the Superfund Alternative Approach (SAA), where a responsible party does NPL-caliber cleanup under an EPA agreement without formal listing — these show up in the same EPA search tools.

Two things buyers commonly get wrong:

• Being on the NPL doesn't mean cleanup hasn't started. Many NPL sites have been under active remediation for decades, with contamination contained and monitored. Others have been deleted from the list after cleanup and are redeveloped.
• An NPL listing does not automatically make a neighborhood unsafe or unsellable. What matters is the specific contamination, its pathway to people (air, groundwater, soil), and cleanup status — all of which are documented publicly for every site.

Why It Matters: Health and Property-Value Stakes

The health question depends entirely on exposure pathways. Contamination locked under a clay cap 0.9 miles away is a very different situation from a solvent plume in the groundwater under the street you're buying on. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) publishes public health assessments for many NPL sites — plain-language documents that say whether nearby residents face an exposure risk and through what pathway. Search the site name plus "ATSDR" to find them.

On value: the economics literature is genuinely mixed. Peer-reviewed hedonic studies collected in EPA's land-cleanup economics research range from essentially no measurable price effect to double-digit discounts, with many estimates clustering in the low single digits to around 8 percent for homes near a site, and larger effects very close to large or high-profile sites. Most studies also find values recover partially or fully after cleanup completes. The practical takeaway: proximity can affect resale and marketability, but the effect is site-specific — which is exactly why you check the details rather than walking away on the word "Superfund" alone.

There are also transactional consequences. Maryland, for example, now requires sellers within one mile of an NPL site to attach a specific Superfund disclosure addendum to the contract, with a five-day right for the buyer to void (effective October 2024). Most other states rely on general known-hazard disclosure rules, and appraisers for FHA and VA loans are expected to note environmental hazards that affect value or livability. Standard homeowner's insurance policies broadly exclude pollution damage, so contamination risk is largely uninsured at the household level.

How to Search EPA Tools, Step by Step

Both tools are free and take about ten minutes total.

Step 1: Search the Superfund Site List

1. Open Search for Superfund Sites Where You Live.
2. Pick your state to see all NPL and SAA sites, or use the interactive NPL map on the same page.
3. Click any site near your target address to open its profile: contaminants found, cleanup milestones, current status, and documents.
4. For a deeper cut — including archived and non-NPL sites the EPA has assessed — follow the page's link into the Superfund Enterprise Management System (SEMS) search.

Step 2: Map Everything Else with Cleanups in My Community

1. Open Cleanups in My Community (the program page at epa.gov/cleanups/cleanups-my-community explains the layers).
2. Enter the property address or ZIP code.
3. Turn on the layers that matter for a home purchase: Superfund/NPL, RCRA corrective action, brownfields, and underground storage tank releases.
4. Note the name, distance, and direction of anything within roughly a mile, then look up each site's status.

Step 3: Read Status, Not Just Dots

For each nearby site, answer three questions from its profile: What contaminated what (soil, groundwater, air)? Is the contamination contained or migrating? What's the cleanup milestone — investigation, remedy in place, construction complete, or deleted from the NPL? A dot on the map is a starting point, not a verdict.

Brownfields vs. Superfund vs. RCRA Corrective Action

The map layers represent different programs with very different severity levels. Here's how they compare for a home buyer:

Program	What it is	Typical severity	Where to check
Superfund / NPL	Federal cleanup of the most serious contaminated sites under CERCLA	Highest — but many sites are contained or largely cleaned up	Superfund search
Superfund Alternative Approach	NPL-caliber cleanup by a responsible party without formal listing	Same class as NPL	Same tools; sites flagged as SAA
RCRA corrective action	Cleanup at operating or former hazardous-waste facilities under the RCRA program	Varies widely — from paperwork issues to significant groundwater plumes	Cleanups in My Community
Brownfields	Underused properties where redevelopment is complicated by known or suspected contamination — often mild	Usually lower; frequently an assessment grant, not a confirmed hazard	EPA Brownfields and CIMC
Leaking underground storage tanks (LUST)	Petroleum releases from gas stations and old heating-oil tanks	Localized, but common and close-range relevant	CIMC UST-release layer and state tank databases

A brownfield across the street is often just a former commercial lot that received an assessment grant. A RCRA corrective-action facility with an off-site groundwater plume can matter more than an NPL site three times farther away. Read the record, not the label.

What Distance Actually Matters

There's no federal "safe distance" from a Superfund site, but the professional standard for environmental due diligence — ASTM E1527, used in Phase I Environmental Site Assessments — sets standard search radii that are a sensible screen for home buyers too:

• 1.0 mile: NPL sites and RCRA corrective-action facilities
• 0.5 mile: leaking underground storage tank sites and most state cleanup listings
• The property itself and adjoining parcels: everything, including registered tanks and past land uses

Distance is a screen, not the answer. The two follow-up questions that convert distance into actual risk are: which way does groundwater flow (a plume 0.4 miles downgradient of you is usually irrelevant; one 0.4 miles upgradient deserves attention), and is your drinking water from a private well or a monitored public system. If the home has a private well anywhere near a contamination site, water testing moves to the top of your list — a point we cover in our broader home buyer due-diligence checklist.

Groundwater Plumes and Vapor Intrusion, in Plain Language

Two phrases come up constantly in site documents and are worth understanding before you read one.

Groundwater plumes

When solvents, fuel, or other chemicals soak into the ground, they can reach the water table and drift slowly with the groundwater flow — a "plume," like a stain spreading through wet paper. Plumes move in one direction (downgradient), can extend from hundreds of feet to a few miles at large sites, and can pass beneath homes that show no surface signs at all. Site documents will map the plume's boundary and say whether it's stable, shrinking, or still expanding.

Vapor intrusion

Certain chemicals in a plume — especially chlorinated solvents like TCE and PCE, the classic dry-cleaner and degreaser chemicals — evaporate underground and can seep up through foundation cracks into indoor air. This is vapor intrusion, and it's the main way a plume affects a home that isn't drinking well water. The good news: it's testable (sub-slab and indoor-air sampling) and fixable with a mitigation system nearly identical to a radon system — a fan and pipe that vents sub-slab air outdoors, typically installed for a few thousand dollars. If radon is on your radar anyway, the same mitigation logic applies; see our guide to EPA radon zones by county.

If a site profile near your target home mentions a vapor-intrusion investigation or mitigation systems installed in the neighborhood, ask directly whether the home you're buying was sampled and what the results were.

Questions to Ask Sellers and Agents

State seller-disclosure forms usually ask about known environmental hazards, and "I don't know" is a common — and often honest — answer. Ask specifically:

1. Has the property ever been tested for soil, groundwater, or indoor-air contamination? Are reports available?
2. Is the home connected to public water, or a private well? If a well: when was it last tested, and for what?
3. Are you aware of any environmental notices, institutional controls, or deed restrictions on this property or the neighborhood? (Plume areas sometimes carry groundwater-use restrictions recorded on deeds.)
4. Has any home in the area had a vapor-intrusion mitigation system installed?
5. Was the property ever used commercially, or did it ever have an underground heating-oil tank?

Ask your agent to pull the deed and check the title commitment for environmental covenants — they're easy to miss and legally binding on you after closing.

When a Residential Buyer Should Order a Phase I ESA

A Phase I Environmental Site Assessment is the standardized professional review (records search, historical land-use research, site walk) used in nearly every commercial property deal. It's rare in residential purchases, but worth its typical $2,000–$5,000 cost when:

• The home sits within roughly half a mile of an NPL site, an active RCRA corrective-action facility, or a mapped plume — especially upgradient of you is the source
• The home has a private well near any cleanup site
• The lot itself has a commercial or agricultural past (former gas station, dry cleaner, orchard, industrial parcel)
• You're buying land to build, or a converted commercial building

A Phase I doesn't include sampling; if it flags a concern, a Phase II (actual soil, water, or air testing) follows. For most buyers near a well-documented site, a cheaper middle path works: read the EPA site file, call the EPA remedial project manager listed on the site page (they answer the phone more often than you'd expect), and pay only for targeted testing — water, vapor, or soil — that the file suggests is relevant. And keep perspective: environmental screening is one item on a longer list that includes things like flood zone status, which affects far more American homes than Superfund proximity does.

Frequently Asked Questions

How close to a Superfund site is too close to buy a house?

There's no fixed unsafe radius. The professional screening standard looks at NPL sites within 1 mile, but actual risk depends on the contaminant, whether it's contained, groundwater flow direction, and your water source. A capped, monitored site a half mile away can be a non-issue, while an uncontrolled solvent plume a quarter mile upgradient warrants testing before you commit. Read the EPA site profile and any ATSDR health assessment before deciding.

Do sellers have to disclose a nearby Superfund site?

It varies by state. At least one state — Maryland — requires sellers within one mile of an NPL site to attach a specific disclosure addendum, with a five-day buyer right to void. Most states only require disclosure of hazards the seller actually knows about, and courts differ on whether off-site conditions count. Don't rely on disclosure: the EPA search takes ten minutes and doesn't depend on what the seller knew.

Will a house near a Superfund site lose value?

Studies reviewed in EPA's environmental-economics literature find effects ranging from essentially zero to double digits, with many estimates in the low single digits to around 8 percent, and larger discounts very close to large, high-profile sites. Values generally recover as cleanup progresses. Lenders will finance homes near NPL sites, though FHA/VA appraisers must note hazards affecting livability or value.

Is a brownfield near me as bad as a Superfund site?

Usually not. "Brownfield" often means a property where redevelopment is complicated by suspected contamination — many turn out to be lightly contaminated or clean, and the designation frequently just reflects an assessment grant. Superfund/NPL sites are, by definition, among the most seriously contaminated sites in the country. Check the specific record in Cleanups in My Community rather than judging by category.

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Everything above is free, and we'd encourage you to run the EPA searches on any home you're serious about. If you'd rather have it done in one pass, Property Red Flags checks a single US address against EPA Superfund, brownfields, and RCRA records — plus flood, wildfire, radon, wetlands, drinking-water violations, and six other federal categories — for $19, one time. You get a verdict, the evidence behind every finding (source, date, distance), and a what-to-verify plan for before the offer and before closing. See a sample report or check your address now.