Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on Tinker Air Force Base's efforts to correct its hazardous waste management problems.
GAO found that Tinker: (1) implemented a recycling system to reuse hazardous substances generated at the base; (2) installed sensor-activated cutoff valves in its plating and chemical cleaning facility to regulate the flow of industrial wastewater entering its water treatment center; and (3) procured recycling equipment, but will not be able to use it until 1988. GAO also found that: (1) pollution continues to reach the base's streams and groundwater; (2) Tinker requires contractors involved in off-base hazardous waste shipments to use disposal sites that comply with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act's provisions; (3) Tinker collected $52,000 and expects to collect $24,000 in overpayments for hazardous waste shipped off base because of its improved accounting controls; and (4) regulatory agency officials and Tinker believe that it could take years to completely resolve the remaining pollution problems because of their size and complexity.
