The Coast Guard's Cleanup of Hazardous Waste Sites

GAO discussed the U.S. Coast Guard's actions to carry out its responsibilities under environmental laws, focusing on its efforts to identify and clean up its hazardous waste locations. GAO noted that: (1) the Coast Guard believes that it has identified all of its hazardous waste locations and has cleaned up 12 of the 26 locations it identified, but 3 remaining major cleanup efforts will take up to 30 years and could cost $100 million; (2) about half of the Coast Guard waste handlers inspected were cited for violating hazardous waste regulations; (3) of the uncorrected violations, 83 percent were at two of the major cleanup locations; (4) the Coast Guard believes that its present environmental funding is adequate, but that it will need more funding to complete the major cleanups; (5) the Coast Guard cannot estimate its total environmental funding needs until it has completed its assessments and investigations at all locations; and (6) Coast Guard activities were not reporting required environmental violation and cost information to headquarters.