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Superfund / NPL site · EPA Superfund SEMS through latest publishNPL Final

Fairfield Coal Gasification Plant

This site is currently on the EPA Superfund National Priorities List and remains under federal cleanup oversight. Most-cited contaminant of concern: Arsenic.

101 S 7Th St, Fairfield, Iowa · ZIP 52556 · EPA ID IAD981124167

See Jefferson ContaminantsEquity contextHow we read Superfund data
CLEANUP TIMELINE

Listing-date and cleanup-phase enrichment from EPA's per-site SEMS profile is queued for a follow-up ingest pass. Until then, this section will populate from EPA's published timeline data.

Anomaly engine

Notable Signals

No notable signals at this Superfund site for the current ingest. Cleanup-phase and SEMS-action flags are deferred to a follow-up engineering pass.

Contaminants of concern · per EPA SEMS

What's In This Site

Each row pairs a contaminant with the medium it was found in (the exposure pathway). Hover any named contaminant for an agency-cited health-risk summary. Cited count = number of SEMS decision records (RODs and related) that name the pair.

ContaminantPathwayCited
ArsenicHealth riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen via inhalation and ingestion. EPA MCL 10 µg/L; chronic exposure causes skin, lung, bladder cancer and cardiovascular disease. (IARC, EPA, ATSDR)Sediment1
ArsenicHealth riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen via inhalation and ingestion. EPA MCL 10 µg/L; chronic exposure causes skin, lung, bladder cancer and cardiovascular disease. (IARC, EPA, ATSDR)Soil1
ArsenicHealth riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen via inhalation and ingestion. EPA MCL 10 µg/L; chronic exposure causes skin, lung, bladder cancer and cardiovascular disease. (IARC, EPA, ATSDR)Surface Water1
BariumHealth riskSoluble barium compounds are toxic if ingested, affecting the heart, kidneys, and nervous system. Insoluble forms (e.g. barium sulfate) are far less toxic. (EPA)Sediment1
BariumHealth riskSoluble barium compounds are toxic if ingested, affecting the heart, kidneys, and nervous system. Insoluble forms (e.g. barium sulfate) are far less toxic. (EPA)Soil1
BariumHealth riskSoluble barium compounds are toxic if ingested, affecting the heart, kidneys, and nervous system. Insoluble forms (e.g. barium sulfate) are far less toxic. (EPA)Surface Water1
CadmiumGroundwater1
CadmiumSediment1
CadmiumSoil1
CadmiumSurface Water1
Carcinogenic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (Cpah)Health riskPAH class includes IARC Group 1 carcinogens (e.g., benzo[a]pyrene); long-term exposure raises cancer risk. (IARC, EPA)Groundwater1
Carcinogenic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (Cpah)Health riskPAH class includes IARC Group 1 carcinogens (e.g., benzo[a]pyrene); long-term exposure raises cancer risk. (IARC, EPA)Sediment1
Carcinogenic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (Cpah)Health riskPAH class includes IARC Group 1 carcinogens (e.g., benzo[a]pyrene); long-term exposure raises cancer risk. (IARC, EPA)Soil1
Carcinogenic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (Cpah)Health riskPAH class includes IARC Group 1 carcinogens (e.g., benzo[a]pyrene); long-term exposure raises cancer risk. (IARC, EPA)Surface Water1
ChromiumHealth riskHexavalent chromium (Cr-VI) is an IARC Group 1 carcinogen via inhalation, causing lung cancer; trivalent chromium is far less toxic. (IARC, EPA)Groundwater1
ChromiumHealth riskHexavalent chromium (Cr-VI) is an IARC Group 1 carcinogen via inhalation, causing lung cancer; trivalent chromium is far less toxic. (IARC, EPA)Sediment1
ChromiumHealth riskHexavalent chromium (Cr-VI) is an IARC Group 1 carcinogen via inhalation, causing lung cancer; trivalent chromium is far less toxic. (IARC, EPA)Soil1
ChromiumHealth riskHexavalent chromium (Cr-VI) is an IARC Group 1 carcinogen via inhalation, causing lung cancer; trivalent chromium is far less toxic. (IARC, EPA)Surface Water1
CyanideHealth riskAcutely lethal at high doses by blocking cellular respiration; chronic low-dose exposure damages the thyroid and nervous system. (EPA, ATSDR)Groundwater1
CyanideHealth riskAcutely lethal at high doses by blocking cellular respiration; chronic low-dose exposure damages the thyroid and nervous system. (EPA, ATSDR)Sediment1
CyanideHealth riskAcutely lethal at high doses by blocking cellular respiration; chronic low-dose exposure damages the thyroid and nervous system. (EPA, ATSDR)Soil1
CyanideHealth riskAcutely lethal at high doses by blocking cellular respiration; chronic low-dose exposure damages the thyroid and nervous system. (EPA, ATSDR)Surface Water1
LeadHealth riskNeurotoxin. Even low childhood exposure impairs cognitive development; chronic adult exposure damages kidneys and the cardiovascular system. (EPA, ATSDR)Groundwater1
LeadHealth riskNeurotoxin. Even low childhood exposure impairs cognitive development; chronic adult exposure damages kidneys and the cardiovascular system. (EPA, ATSDR)Sediment1
LeadHealth riskNeurotoxin. Even low childhood exposure impairs cognitive development; chronic adult exposure damages kidneys and the cardiovascular system. (EPA, ATSDR)Soil1
LeadHealth riskNeurotoxin. Even low childhood exposure impairs cognitive development; chronic adult exposure damages kidneys and the cardiovascular system. (EPA, ATSDR)Surface Water1
MercuryHealth riskNeurotoxin. Methylmercury bioaccumulates up the food chain and damages the developing nervous system. (EPA, ATSDR)Sediment1
MercuryHealth riskNeurotoxin. Methylmercury bioaccumulates up the food chain and damages the developing nervous system. (EPA, ATSDR)Surface Water1
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (Pahs)Health riskPAH class includes IARC Group 1 carcinogens (e.g., benzo[a]pyrene); long-term exposure raises cancer risk. (IARC, EPA)Groundwater1
Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (Pahs)Health riskPAH class includes IARC Group 1 carcinogens (e.g., benzo[a]pyrene); long-term exposure raises cancer risk. (IARC, EPA)Sediment1

Showing the top 30 pairs by SEMS citation count. 4 additional (contaminant, pathway) pairs are recorded for this site.

Drinking-water linkage · SDWIS

Groundwater Systems Serving Communities Within 3 Miles

The 1 system below draw on groundwater (or mixed sources) and serve communities whose centroid sits within 3 miles of this site. Distance is to the served-city centroid — SDWIS does not expose individual wellhead locations, so this is a proximity screen, not a wellhead-impact assessment.

Water systemServesDistancePopulation servedSourceStatus
Fairfield Water Supply MunicipalFairfield0.3 mi9,821GROUNDWATERUNRESOLVED

Methodology: served-city centroid (TIGER 2020) is used as the PWS coordinate. Source-water classification from SDWIS primary_source_code; only groundwater and mixed-source systems are queried. Click any system above for its full SDWIS profile.

Equity context · ACS 2018-2022 block-group demographics

Who Lives Near This Site

Within 1 mile of this site (3 Census block groups, population-weighted demographics): a population of 3,483. Why we surface this →

POPULATION SHARE
55.3%

Low-income

POPULATION SHARE
24.8%

People of color

POPULATION SHARE
5.4%

Under age 5

POPULATION SHARE
15.3%

Over age 64

Source: Census ACS 2018-2022 block-group demographics, population-weighted across the 1-mile buffer around this site (from USEPA-clone/EJAM-open blockgroupstats). NPL site proximity contributes to the national EJ pattern; indicator-level percentile and disparity scores are surfaced on the county page and the state page.

Source. EPA Superfund Enterprise Management System (SEMS) · retrieved 2026-05-07. SEMS is a federal public-domain dataset under 17 USC §105.

What this is not. We report EPA's published Superfund record — site listing, status, and contaminants of concern as named in EPA's decision documents. We do not perform site visits, independent air or water sampling, or current-state health-risk assessment. NPL listing reflects EPA's Hazard Ranking Score at a point in time; it does not by itself describe present-day exposure.