Superfund: Trends in Spending for Site Cleanups

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO analyzed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Superfund spending from fiscal year (FY) 1987 through FY 1996 to determine: (1) of total Superfund spending, how much was for contractor cleanup work, in contrast with other activities; (2) of the money spent on contractor cleanup work, how much was spent on the actual cleanups, in contrast with cleanup preparation; and (3) whether a trend in spending for the actual cleanup could be determined for the years examined, and, if so, what accounted for that trend.