Toxic Substances

PCB Spill at the Guam Naval Power Generating Plant Gao ID: NSIAD-88-217 September 22, 1988

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the Navy's actions in response to the release of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) at its Piti Power Plant in Guam.

GAO found that the Navy: (1) immediately initiated cleanup efforts after the spill; (2) may have exposed some employees and cleanup personnel to other toxins, since it did not immediately determine if the PCB spill generated other toxins; (3) did not have a prenegotiated contract for site characterization and cleanup recommendation; (4) did not provide cleanup personnel with adequate personal protective equipment; (5) did not provide hazardous materials management training to all cleanup personnel; (6) included all employees in the plant at the time of the spill, cleanup personnel, and continuing operations personnel in its medical monitoring program, but did not ensure that all personnel received baseline medical examinations or timely examinations after the spill; (7) after the spill, established a medical monitoring program to ensure timely examinations for potentially affected personnel; (8) had scheduled replacement of a faulty PCB transformer during fiscal year 1989; and (9) will spend about $6 million for site cleanup.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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