Pollution Analyst
How it works→
Superfund / NPL site · EPA Superfund SEMS through latest publishNPL Final

Pownal Tannery

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

Route 346, North Pownal, Vermont · ZIP 05261 · EPA ID VTD069910354

See Bennington 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)Groundwater2
1,4-DichlorobenzeneHealth riskIARC Group 2B possible carcinogen; common in mothballs and air fresheners. EPA MCL 75 µg/L. (IARC, EPA)Groundwater1
AluminumHealth riskInhaled aluminum fumes can cause lung scarring (aluminosis); high cumulative exposure has been linked to neurological effects. (NIOSH)Surface Water1
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
AtrazineGroundwater1
Benzo[A]AnthraceneHealth riskPAH; IARC Group 2B possible carcinogen; common combustion byproduct and creosote constituent. (IARC)Soil1
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)Soil1
Carbon TetrachlorideHealth riskIARC Group 2B possible carcinogen; liver toxic. EPA MCL 5 µg/L. Banned for most uses since 1986. (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)Soil1
Dichloromethane (Methylene Chloride)Health riskIARC Group 2A probable carcinogen; central-nervous-system depressant; banned for most consumer paint-stripper uses. (IARC, EPA)Groundwater1
Dioxins And DibenzofuransGroundwater1
Dioxins And DibenzofuransSediment1
Dioxins And DibenzofuransSoil1
Heptachlor EpoxideHealth riskIARC Group 2B possible carcinogen; metabolizes to heptachlor epoxide. (IARC, EPA)Groundwater1
IronSurface Water1
LeadHealth riskNeurotoxin. Even low childhood exposure impairs cognitive development; chronic adult exposure damages kidneys and the cardiovascular system. (EPA, ATSDR)Soil1
ManganeseHealth riskExcess inhalation can cause manganism, a Parkinson-like neurological disorder. (ATSDR)Groundwater1
MercuryHealth riskNeurotoxin. Methylmercury bioaccumulates up the food chain and damages the developing nervous system. (EPA, ATSDR)Soil1
MercuryHealth riskNeurotoxin. Methylmercury bioaccumulates up the food chain and damages the developing nervous system. (EPA, ATSDR)Surface Water1
N,N-Dipropylnitrous AmideSoil1
PentachlorophenolHealth riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen; wood preservative; persistent in soil and groundwater. (IARC, EPA)Groundwater1
PentachlorophenolHealth riskIARC Group 1 carcinogen; wood preservative; persistent in soil and groundwater. (IARC, EPA)Soil1
Polychlorinated Biphenyls (Pcbs)Health 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)Sediment1
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)Groundwater1
ThalliumGroundwater1
Drinking-water linkage · SDWIS

Groundwater Systems Serving Communities Within 3 Miles

The 3 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
Lampman Water System PrivatePownal2.7 mi133GROUNDWATERIn compliance
Evergreen Mhp PrivatePownal2.7 mi50GROUNDWATERUNRESOLVED
Pownal Fire District 2 MunicipalPownal2.7 mi682GROUNDWATERIn compliance

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

Bennington County, Vermont (no Census block groups within 1 mile and no host city — falling back to containing county): a population of 37,326. Why we surface this →

POPULATION SHARE
11.2%

Low-income

POPULATION SHARE
7.6%

People of color

POPULATION SHARE
5.1%

Under age 5

POPULATION SHARE
23.3%

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.