Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on federal facilities that are potentially contaminated with hazardous waste, focusing on whether the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken actions to meet mandatory assessment deadlines. GAO found that: (1) as of April 1988, only 395 of the 823 federal facilities on the National Priorities List (NPL) had been assessed; (2) as of April 1989, only 226 preliminary assessments and site inspections had been performed; (3) by July 1992, EPA had not completed assessments and evaluations for 360 facilities on the NPL docket; (4) 14 of the 360 facilities needed a preliminary assessment and the remaining 346 facilities were awaiting further evaluation to determine whether they should be included on NPL; (5) 363 of the facilities evaluated were not contaminated enough to be placed on NPL and 96 facilities were placed on the NPL for Superfund cleanup; (6) Superfund legislation requires that NPL federal facilities have a remedial investigation and feasibility study, an interagency agreement that addresses timetable and clean-up issues, and begin continuous cleanup within 15 months; and (7) as of October 1992, 89 of the 96 NPL facilities had begun the investigation and study phase, agreements had been reached for three facilities, and one facility had completed its continuous clean-up phase.
