Superfund Program

Although the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has primary responsibility for running the Superfund program, other federal agencies also play important roles. These include the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the Department of Justice. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 created the Superfund program to clean up the nation's most hazardous waste sites. ATSDR was established to implement the act's public health provisions. This report evaluates the use of Superfund resources by ATSDR and Justice. GAO determined that EPA provided ATSDR with about $59 million in Superfund funds in fiscal year 1996 and $64 million in fiscal year 1997. These funds were used to conduct health assessments at Superfund sites, provide consultations on health issues unique to a site, and research the health effects of hazardous substances. EPA provided Justice with about $32 million in fiscal year 1996 and about $30 million in fiscal year 1997 to represent the federal government in litigation involving the cleanup of hazardous waste sites. HHS' Inspector General reported that these resources were generally used in accordance with applicable requirements. Justice's Inspector General found no major problems in Justice's use of Superfund resources during the 1990s.

GAO noted that: (1) EPA provided ATSDR with about $59 million in Superfund funds in FY 1996 and $64 million in FY 1997; (2) these funds were used to conduct health assessments at Superfund sites, provide consultations on health issues unique to a site, and research the health effects of hazardous substances; (3) the Department of Health and Human Services' Inspector General annually audits the use of these funds and has reported that these resources were generally used in accordance with applicable requirements; (4) EPA regional officials told GAO that many of ATSDR's products and services were useful in EPA's efforts to clean up hazardous waste sites; (5) however, these officials also said that the health assessments had little or no impact on EPA's cleanup decisions because they were not used when needed and were not conclusive about the health effects of Superfund sites; (6) Superfund legislation requires the ATSDR to conduct health assessments at all sites proposed or listed on the nation's list of the worst hazardous waste sites; (7) recognizing the problems with assessments, ATSDR undertook an initiative to address these concerns; (8) although EPA and ATSDR officials believe that the initiative has resolved some of the problems, they questioned the continuing need for the legislative requirement that full health assessments be prepared for all Superfund sites; (9) they also believed that the ATSDR's resources could be used for consultations or other services that better meet EPA's and other users' needs; (10) EPA provided DOJ with about $32 million in FY 1996 and about $30 million in FY 1997 to represent the federal government in litigation involving the cleanup of hazardous waste sites; (11) DOJ's actions included negotiating with responsible parties to compel the cleanup of Superfund sites and recovering the federal government's costs when EPA cleans up sites; and (12) DOJ's annual Inspector General audits have found no major problems in DOJ's use of Superfund resources during the 1990s.

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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