Summary: Since 1980, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has spent more than $14 billion on the Superfund program to address the potential threats to human health and the environment posed by hazardous waste sites. GAO reported last year that about half of the federal Superfund expenditures for fiscal year 1996 went to contractors for cleanup work. The rest went for other purposes, including administration and support; federal efforts to compel private parties to clean up hazardous wastes for which they are responsible; EPA salaries and expenses; and research, development, and laboratory analysis. (See GAO/RCED-97-211, Sept. 1997.) This report (1) updates the share of annual Superfund spending that went for contractor cleanup work to include fiscal year 1997; (2) determines the share of contractor spending for remedial actions that were managed by EPA, other federal agencies, and the states during fiscal years 1996 and 1997; and (3) analyzes the share of spending that contractors charged for the physical implementation of cleanup actions, as opposed to other contractor charges.
