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Superfund / NPL site · EPA Superfund SEMS through latest publishNPL FinalFEDERAL FACILITY

Savannah River Site (Usdoe)

This site is currently on the EPA Superfund National Priorities List and remains under federal cleanup oversight. Most-cited contaminant of concern: Cesium-137.

Between Sc 125 & Us 278, Aiken, South Carolina · ZIP 29802 · EPA ID SC1890008989

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
Cesium-137Health riskBeta/gamma emitter (half-life ~30 yr); whole-body irradiator; legacy of nuclear weapons fallout and reactor accidents. (EPA)Soil21
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)Soil19
TrichloroetheneHealth riskTCE. IARC Group 1 carcinogen — kidney cancer; suspected liver cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. EPA MCL 5 µg/L; common DNAPL groundwater plume contaminant. (IARC, EPA, ATSDR)Groundwater18
Benzo[A]PyreneHealth riskPAH; IARC Group 1 carcinogen; the prototypical PAH used to benchmark PAH-mixture cancer risk. EPA MCL 0.2 µg/L. (IARC, EPA)Soil15
TetrachloroetheneHealth riskPCE / 'perc'. IARC Group 2A probable carcinogen; central-nervous-system effects; common dry-cleaning solvent and DNAPL plume contaminant. EPA MCL 5 µg/L. (IARC, EPA)Groundwater14
TetrachloroetheneHealth riskPCE / 'perc'. IARC Group 2A probable carcinogen; central-nervous-system effects; common dry-cleaning solvent and DNAPL plume contaminant. EPA MCL 5 µg/L. (IARC, EPA)Soil14
Cobalt-60Health riskGamma emitter (half-life ~5.3 yr); used in industrial radiography and cancer therapy; legacy contaminant at federal sites. (EPA)Soil13
Potassium-40Soil11
Radium-226Health riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen (Ra-226 and Ra-228); bone-seeking radionuclide; alpha emitter. EPA combined MCL 5 pCi/L for radium-226+228 in drinking water. (IARC, EPA)Soil11
Radium-228Health riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen (Ra-226 and Ra-228); bone-seeking radionuclide; alpha emitter. EPA combined MCL 5 pCi/L for radium-226+228 in drinking water. (IARC, EPA)Soil11
TrichloroetheneHealth riskTCE. IARC Group 1 carcinogen — kidney cancer; suspected liver cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. EPA MCL 5 µg/L; common DNAPL groundwater plume contaminant. (IARC, EPA, ATSDR)Soil11
Thorium-228Soil10
Uranium-238Health riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen; chemical kidney toxicity exceeds the radiological risk at most environmental levels. EPA MCL 30 µg/L total uranium. (IARC, EPA)Soil10
MercuryHealth riskNeurotoxin. Methylmercury bioaccumulates up the food chain and damages the developing nervous system. (EPA, ATSDR)Soil9
Benzo(B)FluorantheneSoil8
Dibenzo(A,H)AnthraceneSoil8
Dichloromethane (Methylene Chloride)Health riskIARC Group 2A probable carcinogen; central-nervous-system depressant; banned for most consumer paint-stripper uses. (IARC, EPA)Groundwater8
Americium-241Health riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen (alpha emitter, half-life ~432 yr for Am-241); produced in nuclear reactors and weapons. (IARC, EPA)Soil7
Aroclor 1254Health riskPCBs. IARC Group 1 carcinogen; immune, reproductive, and neurological effects; bioaccumulate in fish and breast milk. Banned in 1979; persist as legacy contamination. (IARC, EPA)Soil7
Benzo[A]AnthraceneHealth riskPAH; IARC Group 2B possible carcinogen; common combustion byproduct and creosote constituent. (IARC)Soil7
Bis(2-Ethylhexyl)PhthalateGroundwater7
Cesium-137Health riskBeta/gamma emitter (half-life ~30 yr); whole-body irradiator; legacy of nuclear weapons fallout and reactor accidents. (EPA)Buildings/Structures7
LeadHealth riskNeurotoxin. Even low childhood exposure impairs cognitive development; chronic adult exposure damages kidneys and the cardiovascular system. (EPA, ATSDR)Soil7
Strontium-90Health riskBeta emitter (half-life ~29 yr); bone-seeking — chemically mimics calcium; legacy of nuclear weapons fallout. (EPA, ATSDR)Buildings/Structures7
Strontium-90Health riskBeta emitter (half-life ~29 yr); bone-seeking — chemically mimics calcium; legacy of nuclear weapons fallout. (EPA, ATSDR)Soil7
ZincHealth riskGenerally low acute toxicity. Chronic high-dose exposure disrupts copper absorption and immune function. (ATSDR)Soil7
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)Groundwater6
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)Soil6
Carbon TetrachlorideHealth riskIARC Group 2B possible carcinogen; liver toxic. EPA MCL 5 µg/L. Banned for most uses since 1986. (IARC, EPA)Groundwater6
CopperHealth riskInhaled copper fumes cause metal-fume fever; chronic ingestion above EPA's 1.3 mg/L action level damages the liver. (EPA)Soil6

Showing the top 30 pairs by SEMS citation count. 365 additional (contaminant, pathway) pairs are recorded for this site.

Drinking-water linkage · SDWIS

No Groundwater PWSes Serving Communities Within 3 Miles

No SDWIS public water systems drawing groundwater (or mixed sources) serve a community whose centroid sits within 3 miles of this site. Empty results are not a guarantee of non-impact — distance is computed to served-place centroids, and SDWIS does not expose individual wellhead locations.

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

Around this site Population Characteristics

EQUITY INGEST PENDING FOR THIS GEOGRAPHY

South Carolina state-level (no place or county match).

Demographic shares, national-percentile rankings (PM2.5, ozone, NO₂, diesel particulate, lead-paint risk, NPL/RMP/TSDF/NPDES proximity, drinking-water non-compliance), and EJ disparity scores will render here once the EJScreen-clone ingest completes for this geography. Why this section matters →

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.