Hazardous Waste

EPA Has Made Limited Progress in Determining the Wastes To Be Regulated Gao ID: RCED-87-27 December 23, 1986

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) efforts to: (1) determine which wastes are hazardous; and (2) produce a biennial report on the types and amounts of hazardous wastes the United States generates, treats, stores, and disposes of nationwide.

GAO found that: (1) EPA has met some of the deadlines Congress set for considering additional characteristics and reviewing specific wastes; (2) changing approaches or strategies have hampered EPA identification efforts; (3) since large numbers of hazardous wastes remain unidentified, EPA is considering refocusing its approach to develop characteristics through testing and refining the already-listed hazardous wastes; (4) EPA has made limited progress in completing five congressionally mandated studies of large-volume wastes; (5) although Congress required EPA to use more stringent criteria when reviewing petitions to delist wastes, EPA does not have the required information on state-authorized delistings; and (6) without proper controls, delisting can negate the efforts of the hazardous waste identification program by allowing facilities handling these wastes to escape regulation.

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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