Summary: GAO found that nearly 1,800 of the 3,036 sites that the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) database classified as "awaiting a National Priorities List decision" in October 1997 are still potentially eligible for placement on the list. Officials of EPA, other federal agencies, and states said that many of these potentially eligible sites present risks to human health and the environment. According to these officials, about 73 percent of the sites have contaminated groundwater, and another 22 percent of the sites have the potential to do so in the future. Moreover, about 32 percent of the sites have contaminated drinking water sources, and another 56 percent could potentially do so. The potentially eligible sites are generally found in populated areas. Officials said that some cleanup actions--which they did not characterize as full cleanup actions--have taken place at 686 of the potentially eligible sites. At the other 1,103 potentially eligible sites, no cleanup measures beyond initial site assessments or investigations have been conducted, or no information is available on any such actions. Many of these sites have been in the states' and EPA's inventories of hazardous sites for years. Seventy-three percent have been in EPA's inventory for more than a decade. No cleanup progress was reported at the majority of the sites that have been known for 10 years or longer. Officials did not indicate whether or how more than half of the potentially eligible sites would be cleaned up.
