Hazardous Waste

Abandoned Disposal Sites May Be Affecting Guam's Water Supply Gao ID: NSIAD-87-88BR May 21, 1987

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed Department of Defense (DOD) efforts to identify and clean up abandoned hazardous waste disposal sites on a Navy and an Air Force installation in Guam.

GAO found that DOD: (1) initiated its Installation Restoration Program (IRP) to identify suspected problems with closed disposal sites and to control the migration of hazardous contamination from those sites; (2) completed the program's first phase, the identification of bases with potentially hazardous sites, at both facilities; (3) completed preliminary work on the second-phase confirmation study for the Air Force base; and (4) awarded a contract for a confirmation study for the naval base in April 1986. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Guam: (1) believe that both installations need to include more site assessment work; (2) questioned the scope of the first-phase assessments; (3) noted 45 sites requiring reexamination, despite earlier DOD determinations that they required no further study; and (4) identified more sites that DOD should have assessed during the first phase of IRP. GAO found that: (1) the Navy agreed to perform additional testing of 7 of its sites, but it did not agree to monitor an additional 27 sites, as Guam and EPA requested; (2) the Air Force and Guam were working together during the IRP second phase to ensure reassessment of sites the Air Force did not consider during the first phase; (3) testing of the air base's drinking water has been sporadic and incomplete, but monthly testing of samples at various locations in the system is now in place; and (4) discussions are continuing between EPA, Guam, and the Navy concerning site monitoring.



The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.