Summary: Federal agencies own and operate many facilities--everything from research laboratories to landfills to nuclear weapons plants--potentially contaminated with hazardous waste. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not met its statutory deadlines for evaluating such facilities and deciding whether to enroll them in the Superfund program. By the end of 1992, EPA had finished evaluating only 500 of 823 potentially contaminated facilities. At its current pace, the agency may take more than a decade to finish evaluating and placing facilities on the National Priorities List. EPA missed its deadlines mainly because it did not place a high enough priority on assessing and evaluating federal facilities. EPA and other federal agencies never established a joint plan for responding to the mandates. EPA began to devote more resources and attention to federal facilities only after a 1991 court order. In addition, some federal agencies have given short shrift to environmental issues and have contributed to delays by giving EPA late or incomplete facility assessments.
