Environmental Cleanup: Inconsistent Sharing Arrangements May Increase Defense Costs
NSIAD-94-231
Published: Jul 07, 1994. Publicly Released: Jul 14, 1994.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed Department of Defense (DOD) efforts to clean up environmental damage on DOD-owned property, focusing on: (1) cleanup costs at contaminated facilities; and (2) the DOD approach for sharing cleanup costs between the government and other parties.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should place immediate priority on ensuring that the best available cleanup cost information is used for its planning and budgeting system and for its reports to Congress. |
DOD concurred with the recommendation and has taken action to place greater priority on ensuring that the best available cleanup information is used for planning and budgeting, and for reports to Congress. For fiscal year 1994, the report to Congress included data for the selected locations that was more representative of that submitted by the DOD components and discussed in GAO's report. For example, DOD had reported total cleanup costs of $154 million for the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant in fiscal year 1993, but increased the estimate to more than $600 million, in line with the discussion in the GAO report.
|
| Department of Defense | The Secretary of Defense should provide guidance to resolve disparities among procedures and policies on environmental cleanup responsibility and costs. |
DOD concurred with the recommendation, but its actions have primarily dealt with the first issue discussed in the section above. DOD has not provided additional guidance to resolve disparities. Because of substantial overall progress by DOD in related areas and additional GAO work in process, this recommendation and the prior recommendation are being closed out.
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| Department of Defense | In resolving these disparities, the Secretary of Defense should consider what incentives are needed to minimize environmental contamination and to ensure fair allocation of costs among DOD and private parties. |
See previous recommendation. Because of substantial overall progress by DOD in related areas and additional GAO work in process, this recommendation is being closed out.
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| Department of Defense | In resolving these disparities, the Secretary of Defense should consider how DOD policies and practices can better hold contractors and other private parties liable for their role in the contamination of DOD property. |
Because of substantial overall progress by DOD in related areas and additional GAO work in process, this recommendation is being closed out.
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| Department of Defense | In resolving these disparities, the Secretary of Defense should consider whether DOD information systems provide the data, including the data on costs and potentially responsible parties, needed for DOD recovery of cleanup costs from other parties. |
Because of substantial overall progress by DOD in related areas and additional GAO work in process, this recommendation is being closed out.
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| Department of Defense | In resolving these disparities, the Secretary of Defense should consider whether contractors should subsequently be permitted to recover from DOD part or all of the contributions they have made toward cleanup. |
Because of substantial overall progress by DOD in related areas and additional GAO work in process, this prior recommendation is being closed out.
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Topics
CompensationCost analysisCost sharing (finance)Department of Defense contractorsEnvironmental cleanupsEnvironmental lawEnvironmental monitoringEnvironmental policiesGOCOGovernment liability (legal)Liability of environmental damages