Purdue water, soil analysis technology may help improve cleanup and monitoring at contaminated Superfund sites across the U.S.

At least 53 million Americans, including about 18 percent of the nation’s children, live less than three miles from a Superfund site, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Congress created the Superfund program in 1980 to pay for the cleanup of sites identified by the EPA as polluted by highly dangerous wastes.