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

Ely Copper Mine

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

Town Highway 38, Vershire, Vermont · ZIP 05079 · EPA ID VTD988366571

See Orange 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)Leachate2
AluminumHealth riskInhaled aluminum fumes can cause lung scarring (aluminosis); high cumulative exposure has been linked to neurological effects. (NIOSH)Surface Water2
CadmiumLeachate2
CadmiumSurface Water2
CobaltGroundwater2
CobaltSolid Waste2
CopperHealth riskInhaled copper fumes cause metal-fume fever; chronic ingestion above EPA's 1.3 mg/L action level damages the liver. (EPA)Leachate2
CopperHealth riskInhaled copper fumes cause metal-fume fever; chronic ingestion above EPA's 1.3 mg/L action level damages the liver. (EPA)Solid Waste2
CopperHealth riskInhaled copper fumes cause metal-fume fever; chronic ingestion above EPA's 1.3 mg/L action level damages the liver. (EPA)Surface Water2
IronGroundwater2
IronLeachate2
IronSolid Waste2
IronSurface Water2
LeadHealth riskNeurotoxin. Even low childhood exposure impairs cognitive development; chronic adult exposure damages kidneys and the cardiovascular system. (EPA, ATSDR)Leachate2
LeadHealth riskNeurotoxin. Even low childhood exposure impairs cognitive development; chronic adult exposure damages kidneys and the cardiovascular system. (EPA, ATSDR)Surface Water2
ManganeseHealth riskExcess inhalation can cause manganism, a Parkinson-like neurological disorder. (ATSDR)Groundwater2
NickelHealth riskNickel compounds are IARC Group 1 carcinogens; inhalation exposure raises lung and nasal cancer risk. (IARC)Leachate2
NickelHealth riskNickel compounds are IARC Group 1 carcinogens; inhalation exposure raises lung and nasal cancer risk. (IARC)Surface Water2
SeleniumLeachate2
SeleniumSurface Water2
ZincHealth riskGenerally low acute toxicity. Chronic high-dose exposure disrupts copper absorption and immune function. (ATSDR)Leachate2
ZincHealth riskGenerally low acute toxicity. Chronic high-dose exposure disrupts copper absorption and immune function. (ATSDR)Surface Water2
CopperHealth riskInhaled copper fumes cause metal-fume fever; chronic ingestion above EPA's 1.3 mg/L action level damages the liver. (EPA)Sediment1
ZincHealth riskGenerally low acute toxicity. Chronic high-dose exposure disrupts copper absorption and immune function. (ATSDR)Solid Waste1
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 · ACS 2018-2022 block-group demographics

Who Lives Near This Site

Orange County, Vermont (no Census block groups within 1 mile and no host city — falling back to containing county): a population of 29,439. Why we surface this →

POPULATION SHARE
9.2%

Low-income

POPULATION SHARE
5.5%

People of color

POPULATION SHARE
4.9%

Under age 5

POPULATION SHARE
22.2%

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.