Future Actions

In May, 2010, the EPAU.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Remedy Review Board concurred with the EPAU.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 10 tentative cleanup plan outlined above. EPAU.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 10 had intended to publish the Proposed Plan for public comment for the FMC site in the summer of 2010.

This was delayed until September, 2011 due to EPAU.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s acceptance of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes’ request to delay the Proposed Plan to consider whether to impose recently-issued Tribal regulations. The Tribes’ request for a delay came twenty years after the initial listing of the EMF SiteThe Eastern Michaud Flats Superfund Site, which consists of the J.R. Simplot Co. fertilizer plant and the former FMC Corporation elemental phosphorus facility. on the NPLNational Priorities List. A nation-wide list of Superfund sites with elevated priority for cleanup.. The Tribes made this request despite the fact that they have been a full participant in CERCLAThe Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. The federal law that addresses cleanup of contaminated sites. Also called Superfund. investigations, evaluations and development of proposed cleanup actions since 1991. Sixteen months later, FMC has every hope, but no expectation, that the Tribes will allow the cleanup process to proceed without further delay.

FMC wants to begin active cleanup of the plant site in early 2012, and on this timeline anticipates completion within two to three years if EPAU.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Proposed Plan is implemented. Under the Tribal regulations, FMC has estimated that cleanup could take up to 44 years. Implementing the Tribal regulations would pose substantial risks to human health and the environment, as well as unreasonably increase the time and cost of cleanup. The Proposed Plan does not at this time seek to impose the Tribal regulations.