Superfund

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spends about $1.4 billion each year on the Superfund program to clean up hazardous waste sites. Superfund has focused on cleaning up the most contaminated sites, although Superfund money may also be used to address other releases of hazardous substances into the environment. This report analyzes Superfund spending from fiscal year 1987 through fiscal year 1996. GAO discusses (1) how much money out of the total Superfund spending went for contractor cleanup work versus other activities, (2) how much of the money spent on contractor cleanup work went for the actual cleanups rather than cleanup preparation, and (3) whether a spending trend exists for the actual cleanups and what accounted for that trend.

GAO noted that: (1) both the amount and share of money spent on contractor cleanup work increased from FY 1987 through FY 1996; (2) in FY 1987, $261 million (in constant 1996 dollars) was spent on contractor cleanup work, or 37 percent of the total Superfund spending of $702 million; (3) in FY 1996, $696 million was spent on contractor cleanup work, or 49 percent of the total Superfund spending of $1.4 billion; (4) in both years, the remaining funds were spent on administration, enforcement, and other Superfund activities; (5) of the money spent on contractor cleanup work, the amount and share spent on the actual cleanups also increased from FY 1987 through FY 1996; (6) in FY 1987, of the $261 million the EPA spent on contractor cleanup work, $142 million was for the actual cleanups, or 54 percent of the total; (7) in FY 1996, of the $696 million the agency spent on contractor cleanup work, $614 million went to the actual cleanups, or 88 percent of the total; (8) in both years, the remaining funds for contractor cleanup work were spent for cleanup preparation--that is, to study site contamination and design the cleanup action; (9) annual spending for the actual cleanups increased by about $472 million from FY 1987 through FY 1996; (10) about half of this increase resulted from spending at a few large-dollar sites (defined as those with $10 million or more in spending during any 1 year); (11) there were no large-dollar sites in 1987 or 1988; but by 1989, two large-dollar sites accounted for $28 million in annual spending; and by 1996, nine such sites accounted for $238 million in annual spending; (12) two other factors each contributed about 25 percent to the increased in the spending for the actual cleanups; (13) first, the remedial action spending at sites other than the large-dollar sites increased from $61 million in 1987 to $180 million in 1996, primarily because the number of these sites grew from 38 in 1987 to 165 in 1996; and (14) second, the amount of money spent on removal actions increased from $80 million in 1987 to $196 million in 1996, primarily to address the immediate threats at sites that were not on the National Priorities List.