EPA Superfund Site

ARSENIC MINE

NY | EPA ID NYD982531469

About this site’s exposure pathways: As of January 2025, the Arsenic Mine Superfund Site is considered "Human Exposure Insufficient Data" because of continuing potential exposure to arsenic on one of six residential properties that rejected EPA’s offer of relocation. In April 2019, the Removal Program mobilized to perform interim actions to protect public health, including providing residents indoor and outdoor door mats and boot brushes, excavating soil in dog pens and backfilling with wood chips, creating woodchip or stone walkways, and paving or adding stone to driveways. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry issued a Public Health Advisory in April 2019 recommending that EPA take short- and long-term measures as soon as feasible to dissociate residents from exposure to arsenic in soils on the site. The site was listed on the National Priorities List (NPL) in October 2019. A Record of Decision (ROD) for an early action that included making offers of acquisition of six affected properties and permanent relocation of the affected residents was issued in June 2020. The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has acquired five properties and relocated the residents; one property owner declined the relocation offer. Fieldwork for Operable Unit 2 (OU2), which will focus on the nature and extent of contamination at the site, is expected to begin in summer 2025.

There is no current exposure of the residents of five properties that have been relocated and the interim measures are still in place at the one property at which the property owner did not accept the relocation offer. the OU2 Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study and risk assessment needs to be completed. It is anticipated that the OU2 risk assessment and ROD will not be completed before 2027; as a result, a human exposure determination cannot be made before 2027.

EPA ensures community participation throughout the remedial process by meeting with residents and affected stakeholders, issuing public notices and updating fact sheets. A site profile has been established on the EPA website to keep the community informed of recent progress at the site. An EPA Community Involvement Coordinator is assigned to the site and can address specific community concerns as they arise.