Summary: Despite the long duration past cleanups, Superfund is within sight of completing the construction of cleanup remedies at most of the sites on the National Priorities List. However, management problems and cost control issues that GAO has cited for years persist. Because few sites have been admitted to the program in recent years, the pipeline for the List is clearing out. On the other hand, many sites in the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) inventory of potential List sites still need attention and possible cleanup, but EPA and the states have postponed decisions, sometimes for up to 10 years or longer, on how to address them. During the past two decades, states have strengthened their capacity to deal with site cleanups to varying degrees. Some have substantial programs, while others claim to have little ability to pay for cleanups. Moreover, not all of the states have adequate enforcement authority to force responsible parties to pay for cleanups. Because the states now have the lead for screening sites for List consideration, future List sites could disproportionately represent complex cleanups for which responsible parties cannot be found or are unwilling to ante up the full cleanup cost. GAO recommends that EPA work with the states to assign responsibility among themselves for these sites. The Superfund reauthorization process gives Congress an opportunity to help guide EPA and the states in allocating responsibility for dealing with these sites.
