"EPA announced the removal today [Wednesday] of 18 previously polluted tracts from its Superfund cleanup list over the past 12 months, the most in any fiscal year since 2005.

The agency called the cleanups a demonstration of the Trump administration's commitment to Superfund, but experts argued it was a testament to decades of effort by career employees and the Trump EPA's tendency to take credit for the past administrations' achievements.

"Under President Trump, EPA is deleting Superfund sites from the National Priorities List at the fastest pace in more than a decade," acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement, which also noted that the agency had completed partial cleanups of four additional sites. "This remarkable accomplishment is proof that cleaning up contaminated lands and returning them to safe and productive use is a top priority of the Trump EPA.""

Corbin Hiar reports for Greenwire October 10, 2018. [2]