Toxic Waste Near 7,194 ZIP Codes — Superfund Map

Data source: ZipCheckup analysis of EPA Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) data

The EPA maintains a list of the most contaminated places in America. It's called the National Priorities List — the Superfund program's registry of sites so toxic they require long-term federal cleanup. There are 1,807 of them in our dataset. And ZipCheckup has calculated exactly how close each of the nation's 41,344 ZIP codes sits to these sites.

The results: 7,194 ZIP codes are rated high or very high risk for Superfund proximity.

The Proximity Map

Superfund sites don't contaminate only the land they sit on. Groundwater plumes migrate. Air emissions drift. Contaminated dust travels. The EPA's own research has documented health effects in populations living miles from NPL sites.

Here's how American ZIP codes stack up by distance to the nearest Superfund site:

Nearly 14% of ZIP codes in the dataset have a Superfund site within 5 kilometers. If you live in a metro area on the East Coast, your odds are much higher.

The Risk Levels

ZipCheckup calculates a Superfund proximity risk score based on distance to the nearest site, the number of sites within concentric rings (5 km, 10 km, 25 km), and cleanup status:

One in six American ZIP codes has high or very high Superfund proximity risk.

The Worst Clusters

Superfund contamination isn't randomly distributed. It clusters around former industrial centers, military installations, and semiconductor manufacturing corridors.

Silicon Valley, California leads the nation in Superfund site density. The legacy of early semiconductor manufacturing left a concentration of groundwater contamination that's still being cleaned up:

ZIP 94086 in Sunnyvale has 15 Superfund sites within 5 kilometers and 20 within 10 kilometers. The nearest — the former Westinghouse Electric plant — is 300 meters away. These are now some of the most expensive neighborhoods in America, built on top of some of its worst contamination.

State-by-State Breakdown

Some states carry far more Superfund burden than others:

New Jersey stands out: 70.8% of its ZIP codes have high or very high Superfund proximity risk. The state's dense industrial history — refineries, chemical plants, munitions factories — left contamination across most of its geography. Washington DC is even more extreme at 98.6%, though its small size and proximity to federal military and industrial sites explains the concentration.

Cleanup Status

Not all Superfund sites are actively leaking. The EPA classifies them by cleanup progress:

"Construction complete" means the physical cleanup infrastructure is in place, but monitoring continues — often for decades. "Deleted" means the site has been cleaned to EPA standards. But 10,139 ZIP codes have their nearest Superfund site still in active cleanup — contamination is being addressed but not yet controlled.

And 1,765 ZIP codes are within 5 kilometers of a site that's still in active cleanup. The contamination is close, and it's ongoing.

The Property Value Effect

Research consistently shows that Superfund proximity depresses property values by 2–8% within a 3-mile radius, with effects diminishing with distance. The impact reverses partially after cleanup completion — an EPA study found property values within 3 miles of cleaned-up sites recovered 18.7% relative to comparable properties.

This creates a perverse financial dynamic: communities near Superfund sites have lower property values, which means lower tax revenue, which means less funding for local infrastructure and services, which compounds the environmental burden. It's the same cycle visible in our income and water quality analysis and environmental justice data.

How to Check Your ZIP Code

Every ZIP code in our database includes Superfund proximity data as part of its safety report. You can see:

• Distance to the nearest NPL site
• The site's name and cleanup status
• Number of Superfund sites within 5, 10, and 25 kilometers
• Your ZIP's Superfund proximity risk score
• How your area compares nationally

For Superfund-adjacent ZIPs especially, knowing what your water utility tests for matters: across the 5,572 public utilities tracked in the CCR Rich Dataset, only 753 (13.5%) disclose PFAS detections with a substances list in their CCR — meaning roughly 4,800 still don't itemize PFAS findings even where federal Priority List contamination is documented nearby.

The EPA knows where every one of these sites is. The cleanup data is public. The question is whether you've checked what's near your home.

Check your ZIP code now →

Methodology: ZipCheckup analyzes EPA Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) data for 41,344 ZIP codes, covering 1,807 unique NPL sites. Proximity is calculated from ZIP code centroids to site coordinates. Risk scores incorporate distance to nearest site, number of sites within 5/10/25 km concentric rings, and cleanup status. Site classifications (active cleanup, construction complete, deleted, proposed) follow EPA's NPL status designations. All data reflects the most recent NPL dataset.