Hazardous Waste Exports

Data Quality and Collection Problems Weaken EPA Enforcement Activities Gao ID: PEMD-93-24 July 6, 1993

Although U.S. companies have the option of exporting their hazardous wastes, which can pose threats to human health and the environment in the importing companies, they must provide data to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before, during, and after shipments. Foreign facilities can then use these data to decide whether to accept the waste. GAO's study of 52 shipments revealed several data quality and collection problems involving either the exporters' activities or the design and the implementation of the hazardous waste export program. In addition, GAO found other problems, including 10 violations of the export regulations, that EPA had overlooked. These problems and the fact that they went undetected are directly linked to the other data and program problems identified. GAO found that governments of importing countries and foreign receiving facilities generally did not rely on data from either the exporters or EPA in making decisions on importing U.S. hazardous waste.

GAO found that: (1) a study of exporters' documentation and manifests revealed a number of data quality and collection problems related to exporters' activities or the design of the EPA program; (2) foreign importers and receiving facilities did not rely on EPA-provided data to make decisions on importing U.S. hazardous wastes; (3) officials at receiving facilities used their own analyses of the wastes proposed for shipment to determine whether they were capable of treating and disposing of the wastes; (4) importing countries relied primarily on the information provided by receiving facilities and their own import monitoring systems; (5) EPA did not detect 10 export regulation violations directly related to data and program problems; and (6) EPA needs to obtain hazardous waste export data that are reliable, valid, and complete to determine the potential risks of exporting U.S. hazardous waste.

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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