Summary: Comments were presented on the results of a prior review of the Superfund Program which is designed to finance and clean up uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. The fund is to be used by the federal government, primarily by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or a state government to clean up spilled toxic wastes and hazardous waste sites where the responsible party does not take appropriate action. Implementation by EPA of the program has been hampered by a lack of final policies and guidance. Although the Superfund legislation required a national priority list of at least 400 sites by June 1981, EPA was only able to provide an interim list of 115 sites. EPA decided to develop the interim priority list because it realized that the legislatively mandated deadline would not be met. In the view of EPA, the interim list was beneficial in that it started the Superfund Program moving and provided valuable experience in implementing a site prioritization system. To determine which sites would make the interim list, EPA developed a hazard ranking system. Although EPA has two primary databases on uncontrolled, abandoned, or inactive hazardous waste sites, it lacks a national inventory of the total number of such sites existing. Nearly 16 months after Superfund was enacted, there have been few Superfund-financed remedial action accomplishments. Lack of available funding for Superfund activities is not a cause for limited program accomplishments. In fact, Superfund obligations lag far behind the spending levels appropriated by Congress.
