Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) inclusion of a hazardous waste site on its National Priorities List (NPL), focusing on: (1) its inclusion of the entire site on NPL; and (2) the cost-effectiveness of its treatment of the site.
GAO found that EPA: (1) complied with applicable laws and regulations when it defined the site's boundaries for inclusion on NPL; (2) did not remove a portion of the site from NPL, as requested by a potential buyer as a precondition for sale, since regulations expressly prohibited such deletion pending cleanup; (3) is pursuing cleanup funds or actions from about 200 parties that owned or disposed of waste at the site; and (4) announced that over 100 companies had signed a consent decree, valued at about $66 million, to finance or conduct some of the site cleanup activities. GAO also found that the EPA feasibility study of on-site and off-site treatment approaches: (1) did not adequately analyze alternative treatment costs and certain hidden costs; (2) concluded that construction and operation of an on-site treatment plant could save $1.86 million over off-site treatment costs; (3) also considered such criteria as public health, environmental concerns, and engineering implementation and feasibility in selecting its treatment approach; and (4) evaluated five alternative plant sites and the feasibility of using two nearby existing commercial treatment plants.
