Superfund Program: Current Status and Future Fiscal Challenges
GAO-03-850
Published: Jul 31, 2003. Publicly Released: Sep 02, 2003.
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Highlights
Congress established the Superfund program in 1980 to clean up highly contaminated hazardous waste sites. Among other things, the law established a trust fund to help the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pay for cleanups and related program activities. The trust fund was financed primarily by three dedicated taxes until 1995, when the taxing authority expired. EPA continues to discover sites eligible for cleanup under the Superfund program. GAO was asked to examine the current status of the Superfund program, the factors guiding EPA's selection of sites to be placed on its National Priorities List, and the program's future outlook.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Environmental Protection Agency | In considering changes to the program to addres future challenges associated with the Superfund program's fiscal uncertainy, the Administrator, EPA, should develop indicators that can be used to measure program performance. |
EPA has established three indicators to measure Superfund program performance by fiscal year 2008: (1) control all identified unacceptable human exposures from site contamination at or below health-based levels for current land and/or ground water use conditions at 84% of Superfund human exposure sites; (2) control the migration of contaminated ground water through engineered remedies or natural process at 65% of Superfund ground water exposure sites; and (3) select final remedies (cleanup targets) at 82% of Superfund sites.
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Topics
Appropriated fundsEligibility criteriaEnvironmental policiesFederal fundsHazardous substancesProgram evaluationTrust fundsWaste disposalWaste managementHazardous waste sites