On Feb. 8, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced it was conducting a five-year review of a 322-acre residential area of the USS Lead Superfund Site in East Chicago, Ind. EPA will review the soil cleanups completed in residential parts of the site, including the neighborhood around the former Carrie Gosch School. This is the first five-year review since Atlantic Richfield Co. and E.I. Du Pont De Nemours and Co. agreed to cleanup the site, including the removal of contaminated soil.

Five-year reviews, such as this one, are used when hazardous substances remain at levels that restrict site usage or pose an exposure risk. EPA’s review of this cleanup is one of the first opportunities to see how the Biden administration will apply its revised priorities, including the environmental justice principles articulated in Executive Orders EO 13990 Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis, and EO 14008 Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home.

The review is set to be complete by October 2021, after which EPA will issue its five-year review report.