Federal Facility Cleanups EPA Region 10 Needs to Improve Oversight of Remediation Activities at the Hanford Superfund 100-K Area

Federal facility cleanups : EPA Region 10 needs to improve oversight of remediation activities at the Hanford Superfund 100-K area.

Evaluation Report Federal Facility Cleanups EPA Region 10 Needs to Improve Oversight of Remediation Activities at the Hanford Superfund 100-K Area

The federal Superfund program for cleaning up America's inactive toxic waste sites is noteworthy not only for its enormous cost - $15.2 billion has been authorized thus far - but also for its unique design. The legislation that created Superfund provided the Environmental Protection Agency with a diverse set of policy tools. Preeminent among them is a civil liability scheme that imposes responsibility for multimillion dollar cleanups on businesses and government units linked - even tangentially - to hazardous waste sites. Armed with this potent policy implement, the agency can order the parties who are legally responsible for the toxic substances at a site to clean it up, with large fines and damages for failure to comply. EPA can also offer conciliatory measures to bring about voluntary, privately financed cleanup; or it can launch a cleanup initially paid for by Superfund and later force the responsible parties to reimburse the government. In this book, Thomas W. Church and Robert T. Nakamura provide the first in-depth study of Superfund operations at hazardous waste sites. They examine six Superfund cleanups, including three regions and both 'hard' and 'easy' sites, to ask 'what works?' Based on detailed case studies, the book describes various strategies that have been applied by government regulators and lawyers and the responses to those different strategies by businesses and local government officials. The authors characterize the implementation strategies used by the EPA as prosecution, accommodation, and public works. They point out that the choice of strategy involves setting priorities among Superfund's competing objectives. They conclude that the best implementation strategy is one that considers the context of each site and the particular priorities in each case. Looking toward the reauthorization of Superfund, they also offer recommendations for improvements in the organization of the program and discuss proposals for change in its

Before the passage of federal environmental legislation in the 1970s and 1980s, Department of Defense (DoD) activities contaminated millions of acres of soil and water on and near DoD sites. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has certain oversight authorities for cleaning up contaminants on federal property, and has placed 1,620 of the most contaminated sites -- including 141 DoD installations -- on its National Priorities List (NPL). As of February 2009, after 10 or more years on the NPL, 11 DoD installations had not signed the required interagency agreements (IAG) to guide cleanup with EPA. GAO was asked to examine the following: (1) the status of DoD cleanup of hazardous substances at selected installations that lacked IAGs; and (2) obstacles, if any, to cleanup at these installations. GAO selected and visited three installations, reviewed relevant statutes and agency documents, and interviewed agency officials. GAO is recommending, among other things, that EPA and DoD identify options that would provide a uniform method for reporting cleanup progress at the installations and allow for transparency to Congress and the public. EPA and DoD agreed with the recommendations directed at them. GAO is also suggesting that Congress may want to consider giving EPA certain tools to enforce CERCLA at federal facilities without IAGs. DoD disagreed with this suggestion. GAO believes that EPA needs additional authority to ensure timely and proper cleanup at such sites.