Superfund

Superfund has successfully responded to emergency hazardous waste leaks and convinced many polluters to pay for the restoration of contaminated areas. Potential Superfund liability may also have made the handlers of hazardous waste more careful about its disposal. Yet so far, despite a major investment of resources, Superfund has achieved little of its main mission: the permanent cleanup of major hazardous waste sites. Unless EPA controls the costs and increases the speed of cleanups, the log-jam of sites "in process" could grow even larger, with costs soaring beyond the nation's ability to pay. Health and environmental risks at Superfund sites also need to be better resolved. In the next several years before Superfund is scheduled for reauthorization, solutions are needed to better control costs, streamline the cleanup process, assess the effectiveness of cleanup actions, and get a better handle on hazardous waste site risks.