Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) progress in completing closures and issuing post-closure permits at hazardous waste disposal facilities.
GAO found that: (1) nearly half of the facilities that treat, store, or dispose of hazardous waste have decided to close their operations because they are unable or unwilling to meet federal hazardous waste requirements; (2) EPA has made only limited progress in closing and issuing post-closure permits to disposal facilities; (3) timely closure of facilities that have ceased operations is important because the closure process involves stabilizing the facility, which minimizes the further spread of contamination; (4) under the Superfund Program, EPA can compel responsible parties to clean up contamination or pay for cleanup; (5) disposal facilities scheduled for closure can pose a serious threat of groundwater contamination; (6) EPA has neither tracked nor assigned specific targets to the number of disposal closures to be completed; (7) the average cost of cleaning up a Superfund site is $26 million; (8) by eliminating or minimizing the spread of contamination, closure provides an important first step in protecting the environment; and (9) the Environmental Priorities Initiative does not include national criteria and a scoring system for ranking facilities on the basis of environmental threat.
