GAO Superfund Work

GAO discussed its work in the area of hazardous waste disposal and issues to be considered during congressional debates on the reauthorization of the Superfund program. The testimony focused on the extent of the hazardous waste problem, the status of cleanup efforts, and the projected cost of cleaning up the nation's most hazardous waste sites. GAO found that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not yet identified all potential hazardous waste sites, and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has not completed health risk evaluations. HHS has eight health studies and six laboratory projects underway and six other health studies are in the planning stages. EPA has cleaned up 10 of the worst sites and has conducted 430 removal actions, concentrating its cleanup efforts on the worst sites and leaving the cleanup of most sites to the states. While EPA estimates that cleaning up the anticipated priority sites will cost the federal government from $8 billion to $23 billion, GAO has estimated that the cleanup costs could range from $6 billion to $39 billion. Related state and responsible party cleanup and maintenance costs could amount to an additional $34 billion. Both EPA and state efforts have been limited in identifying new sites, relying primarily on local governments and the public to discover them. GAO has found an absence of legislative standards on the amount of cleanup required and a disagreement among experts as to how much site cleanup is appropriate. In considering reauthorization, Congress could make no change in the basic structure of the legislation, or it could change the structure of the Superfund program to emphasize permanent, long-term remedies, and give EPA responsibility for setting national standards for dealing with hazardous waste sites.