Superfund

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has come up with remedies to clean up 275 of the nation's most hazardous waste sites. Although construction has been completed at these sites, additional activities, known as operations and maintenance, may be necessary to ensure that remedies continue to function effectively and that the cleanup protects human health and the environment. The federal government, states, and responsible parties must perform long-term operations and maintenance at nearly two-thirds of the 275 sites GAO reviewed. These activities, which include controlling the erosion of landfill covers, treating contaminated groundwater, or enforcing restrictions on land or water use on sites, will continue for decades and in some cases, indefinetly. For cleanup remedies that EPA or the responsible parties have already undertaken or will undertake, GAO estimates that about $32 billion will be needed for operations and maintenance costs nationwide through fiscal year 2040. The states and responsible parties will bear most of these costs. At least every five years EPA is required to review conditions at many sites that need operations and maintenance, and these reviews have often uncovered problems that the state or responsible parties have had to correct. However, EPA has a large backlog of overdue reviews and consequently may be unaware of deteriorating conditions at some site.

GAO found that: (1) the federal government, states, and responsible parties must perform long-term O&M activities at almost two-thirds of the 275 NPL sites reviewed; (2) these O&M activities include controlling erosion of landfill covers, treating contaminated groundwater, and implementing and enforcing land and water use restrictions; (3) the nationwide cost of current and future O&M activities will be about $32 billion through fiscal year 2040, much of which will be borne by the states and responsible parties; (4) the cost of a given site remedy will depend mainly on what remedy type EPA selects and the duration of the O&M activities; (5) until recently, EPA has focused on the evaluation and cleanup of Superfund sites, but EPA monitoring of O&M activities is crucial because states and responsible parties do not always follow their O&M plans and site conditions can deteriorate; (6) EPA is just now developing guidance for site project managers on monitoring O&M activities to ensure that O&M plans are followed; and (7) EPA has a significant backlog of 5-year reviews and may not be aware of deteriorating conditions at some sites.