Hazardous Waste

GAO found that nearly 1,800 of the 3,036 sites that the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) database classified as "awaiting a National Priorities List decision" in October 1997 are still potentially eligible for placement on the list. Officials of EPA, other federal agencies, and states said that many of these potentially eligible sites present risks to human health and the environment. According to these officials, about 73 percent of the sites have contaminated groundwater, and another 22 percent of the sites have the potential to do so in the future. Moreover, about 32 percent of the sites have contaminated drinking water sources, and another 56 percent could potentially do so. The potentially eligible sites are generally found in populated areas. Officials said that some cleanup actions--which they did not characterize as full cleanup actions--have taken place at 686 of the potentially eligible sites. At the other 1,103 potentially eligible sites, no cleanup measures beyond initial site assessments or investigations have been conducted, or no information is available on any such actions. Many of these sites have been in the states' and EPA's inventories of hazardous sites for years. Seventy-three percent have been in EPA's inventory for more than a decade. No cleanup progress was reported at the majority of the sites that have been known for 10 years or longer. Officials did not indicate whether or how more than half of the potentially eligible sites would be cleaned up.

GAO noted that: (1) on the basis of surveys of EPA regions, other federal agencies, and states, GAO has determined that 1,789 of the 3,036 sites that EPA's database classified as awaiting a NPL decision in October 1997 are still potentially eligible for placement on the list; (2) GAO considered the 1,234 other sites as unlikely to become eligible for various reasons; (3) the other sites do not require cleanup in the view of the responding officials, have already been cleaned up, or have final cleanup activities under way; (4) officials of EPA, other federal agencies, and states said that many of the potentially eligible sites present risks to human health and the environment; (5) the potentially eligible sites are generally located in populated areas; (6) officials of EPA, other federal agencies, and states said that about 17 percent of the potentially eligible sites currently pose high human health and environmental risks and that another 10 percent could also pose high risks in the future if they are not cleaned up; (7) however, these officials were unsure about the severity of risks for a large proportion of the sites; (8) responding officials said that some cleanup actions have taken place at 686 of the potentially eligible sites; (9) no cleanup activities beyond initial site assessments or investigations have been conducted, or no information is available on any such actions, at the other 1,103 potentially eligible sites; (10) many of the potentially eligible sites have been in states' and EPA's inventories of hazardous sites for extended periods; (11) 73 percent have been in EPA's inventory for more than a decade; (12) no cleanup progress was reported at the majority of the sites that have been known for 10 years or more; (13) responding officials did not indicate whether or how more than half of the potentially eligible sites would be cleaned up; (14) collectively, EPA and state officials believed that 232 of the potentially eligible sites might be placed on the NPL in the future; (15) however, EPA and the states agreed on the listing prospects of only a small number of specific sites; (16) officials estimated that almost one third of the potentially eligible sites are likely to be cleaned up under state programs but usually could not give a date for the start of cleanup activities; (17) officials of about 20 percent of the states said that their state's enforcement capacity to compel responsible parties to clean up potentially eligible sites is fair to very poor; and (18) officials of about half of the states told GAO that their state's financial capability to clean up potentially eligible sites is poor or very poor.

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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