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

Torch Lake

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

Ste Rte 26 N Of Quincy Mills, Houghton County, Michigan · ZIP 49934 · EPA ID MID980901946

See Houghton 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
AluminumHealth riskInhaled aluminum fumes can cause lung scarring (aluminosis); high cumulative exposure has been linked to neurological effects. (NIOSH)Solid Waste1
AntimonyHealth riskInhaled antimony trioxide is an IARC Group 2B possible carcinogen; respiratory and cardiovascular effects from long-term exposure. EPA MCL 6 µg/L. (IARC, EPA)Solid Waste1
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)Solid Waste1
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)Solid Waste1
Benzo(B)FluorantheneSolid Waste1
Benzo(K)FluorantheneSolid Waste1
BerylliumSolid Waste1
Bis(2-Ethylhexyl)PhthalateSolid Waste1
Butyl Benzyl PhthalateSolid Waste1
CadmiumSolid Waste1
ChromiumHealth riskHexavalent chromium (Cr-VI) is an IARC Group 1 carcinogen via inhalation, causing lung cancer; trivalent chromium is far less toxic. (IARC, EPA)Solid Waste1
ChryseneSolid Waste1
CobaltSolid Waste1
CopperHealth riskInhaled copper fumes cause metal-fume fever; chronic ingestion above EPA's 1.3 mg/L action level damages the liver. (EPA)Solid Waste1
Diethyl PhthalateSolid Waste1
FluorantheneSolid Waste1
LeadHealth riskNeurotoxin. Even low childhood exposure impairs cognitive development; chronic adult exposure damages kidneys and the cardiovascular system. (EPA, ATSDR)Solid Waste1
ManganeseHealth riskExcess inhalation can cause manganism, a Parkinson-like neurological disorder. (ATSDR)Solid Waste1
MercuryHealth riskNeurotoxin. Methylmercury bioaccumulates up the food chain and damages the developing nervous system. (EPA, ATSDR)Solid Waste1
NickelHealth riskNickel compounds are IARC Group 1 carcinogens; inhalation exposure raises lung and nasal cancer risk. (IARC)Solid Waste1
PyreneSolid Waste1
SilverHealth riskChronic exposure can cause argyria — irreversible blue-grey skin discoloration. Generally low systemic toxicity. (ATSDR)Solid Waste1
VanadiumHealth riskRespiratory irritant. Chronic high exposure causes 'green tongue' and bronchitis. (NIOSH)Solid Waste1
Drinking-water linkage · SDWIS

Groundwater Systems Serving Communities Within 3 Miles

The 2 systems 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
Sherman Township MunicipalLake Linden1.8 mi40GROUNDWATERUNRESOLVED
Lake Linden MunicipalLake Linden1.8 mi1,203GROUNDWATERUNRESOLVED

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

Houghton County, Michigan (no Census block groups within 1 mile and no host city — falling back to containing county): a population of 37,414. Why we surface this →

POPULATION SHARE
17.3%

Low-income

POPULATION SHARE
8.9%

People of color

POPULATION SHARE
4.9%

Under age 5

POPULATION SHARE
17.4%

Over age 64

Source: Census ACS 2018-2022 (5-year) + USEPA-clone EJ blockgroup stats (raw indicators + EJ disparity mirror). 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.