BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT)- The EPA has declared Superfund for areas in North Birmingham.  The EPA hopes this will help clean-up neighborhoods where some residents say people are dying because of the contamination.  Not all residents are satisfied, however.

"I don't know whether they're to be commended or to say 'Hell, what took you so damn long," says Jimmy Smith, a resident who believes big industry is the cause of death in his family.  He's lost one daughter to cancer, and another one is struggling with it.  His mother, sister, and sister-in-law: cancer victims.  "We still have people that's walking around, that's sick, that's suffering, still have babies born prematurely," he says.

The Superfund program will help with the investigation and clean-up of Collegeville, Harriman Park, and Fairmont. 

Walter Coke has been in negotiations with the EPA since 1989, when the agency ordered the company to test and possibly clean-up hazardous materials they say may have left the plant. 

In a memo marked December 21, 2011, the EPA states it has or is considering spending public funds to investigate and control the release or potential release of hazardous substances at the site.  It does not talk about the residents themselves, something another government agency could do.  "I would strongly suggest and hope that the federal government call in the people, call in on our babies at these schools," says Smith.

It has taken more than 22 years to get to this point in the clean-up phase.  Smith says hopefully, the next 22 years will tell a different story. 

"Hopefully somebody will say this will just be a bad memory."