Impact on Status of Capping Superfund Sites

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on eight states' ability to take on the tasks and costs of cleaning up hazardous waste sites not on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) National Priorities List (NPL). GAO noted that: (1) if Congress enacts pending legislation capping the number of Superfund sites that EPA can add to NPL, the 8 states could become responsible for 385 sites, with total cleanup costs ranging from $2.2 billion to $3.1 billion; (2) the cleanup fund balances of seven of the eight states total about $323 million, and those states expect to experience difficulties and funding shortfalls if they have to take on additional cleanup responsibility; and (3) the eighth state has no cleanup fund balance and expects to handle the additional cleanups through its voluntary cleanup program.