Recommendations for Executive Action

1. Status: Closed - Not Implemented

   Comments: EPA has directed its regions and the states to address all RCRA hazardous waste facilities, on a worst facility first basis, not only just closing land disposal facilities. EPA has also directed its regions and the states to emphasize actual cleanup over studies and assessments at facility sites. A GAO follow-up review is considering these issues again.

   Recommendation: The Administrator, EPA, should direct EPA regions and the states to obtain and maintain data on the status of closing land disposal facilities' groundwater monitoring systems and on barriers delaying or preventing their installation, as well as develop a plan to address those barriers in a timely fashion so that closure can be completed.

   Agency Affected: Environmental Protection Agency

2. Status: Closed - Not Implemented

   Comments: While EPA agrees that inspections at closing facilities are important and has made inspections a national priority in its FY 1993 program plans, EPA has stated that it is not practical to require more inspections than once every 2 years, as mandated by law.

   Recommendation: The Administrator, EPA, should direct EPA regions and the states to give a higher priority to closing land disposal facilities by annually conducting compliance inspections at those facilities, thereby ensuring that facilities do not have any violations that would significantly delay or prevent closure.

   Agency Affected: Environmental Protection Agency

3. Status: Closed - Implemented

   Comments: EPA has reinstated the requirement that these inspections be conducted every 3 years in its FY 1993 program plans.

   Recommendation: The Administrator, EPA, should direct EPA regions and the states to reinstate the requirement that groundwater monitoring inspections be conducted at least every 3 years at closing land disposal facilities once basic monitoring systems are installed to ensure that the systems are capable of providing necessary and basic information on the extent to which those facilities pose a threat to human health and the environment and require cleanup.

   Agency Affected: Environmental Protection Agency

4. Status: Closed - Not Implemented

   Comments: EPA has not instituted time frames on a national basis because of the caseload carried by EPA's seven administrative law judges.

   Recommendation: The Administrator, EPA, should establish time frames for settling disagreements with owners/operators after enforcement orders are issued, and when such disagreements cannot be resolved and orders are appealed, evaluate the feasibility of establishing time frames for administrative hearings and for obtaining decisions in those hearings.

   Agency Affected: Environmental Protection Agency

5. Status: Closed - Not Implemented

   Comments: Although EPA agrees that facilities should not be allowed to postpone closure by pretending to remove waste, it does not believe it can develop meaningful guidance. In its FY 1993 operating plans, EPA has provided guidance on when regions and states should request in postclosure permit applications.

   Recommendation: The Administrator, EPA, should develop guidance regarding when: (1) facilities should be allowed to attempt waste removal and how long those attempts should continue before facilities are instructed to revise their closure plans to close with waste in place; and (2) regions and states should request post-closure permit applications.

   Agency Affected: Environmental Protection Agency

6. Status: Closed - Not Implemented

   Comments: EPA has outlined a strategy to address all RCRA hazardous waste facilities on a worst-facility-first basis, not just closing land disposal facilities. EPA has asked its regions to submit a strategy to address closing land disposal facilities that either rank high or are unranked for environmental priority. A GAO follow-up review is addressing these issues again.

   Recommendation: The Administrator, EPA, should develop and implement a plan that: (1) identifies those closing land disposal facilities not making reasonable progress toward properly closing and unlikely to comply with RCRA requirements; (2) determines who will install necessary groundwater monitoring systems and when they will be installed to provide basic information on the nature and extent of groundwater contamination; and (3) determines the best options for controlling and cleaning up, in a reasonable time, those facilities that pose the greatest threat.

   Agency Affected: Environmental Protection Agency

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