“Superfund: The Unseen Landscape” is about the formerly toxic sites that have been cleaned up by EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and transformed into places where we live, work and play. The documentary is a story of renewal, the people involved, and the hard choices we make in coping with a toxic legacy. We follow the path of the contaminated waste, from cleanup to disposal, as these places are converted to new landscapes, hidden in plain sight, and already in our backyards.
Superfund sites are the result of a 250-year American industrial legacy, from the earliest days of the colonial economy through the decline of manufacturing in the 1970s. Waste from gunpowder manufacturing, leather tanneries, metal plating, dye works, mining operations, landfills, radioactive arms production, electronics and other industries was disposed of by simply burying it in the ground or dumping it in waterways. Only in the last 50 years have laws existed that make dumping hazardous waste illegal.
EPA and state environmental agencies have now been at work for decades cleaning up Superfund sites and seeking ways to reuse them. Superfund sites “are like snowflakes,” as one EPA manager says; each site is different, requires different approaches to remediation, and will have a different final use. Once remediated, these sites are often unrecognizable, transformed into new housing developments, playing fields, shopping areas, community centers and solar arrays. What is it to live with these sites, as we necessarily do whether we realize it or not?
