Superfund: EPA Could Do More to Reduce Responsible Parties' Legal
Expenses (Testimony, 09/28/93, GAO/T-RCED-93-73).

Parties responsible for cleaning up hazardous waste sites in the
Superfund program have complained that the costs associated with
resolving liability, sometimes called transaction costs, are excessive.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has several tools to reduce
these costs, including (1) de minimis settlements; (2) nonbinding
allocations of responsibility for cleanup costs by EPA to responsible
parties; (3) mixed-funding agreements between EPA and parties to share
cleanup costs; and (4) alternative dispute resolution and use of neutral
third parties to help resolve liability and cost allocation problems.
GAO testified that these tools have been underused, mainly because EPA
has not made a sustained effort to encourage regional offices to use
them.  EPA has been concerned primarily with getting as many responsible
party-financed cleanups under way as quickly as possible and has viewed
the tools as diverting enforcement resources from this effort.  Although
EPA has started to give the settlement tools a higher priority, further
steps are needed to reduce transaction costs.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-RCED-93-73
     TITLE:  Superfund: EPA Could Do More to Reduce Responsible Parties' 
             Legal Expenses
      DATE:  09/28/93
   SUBJECT:  Environmental monitoring
             Industrial wastes
             Waste disposal
             Claims settlement
             Liability (legal)
             Waste management
             Legal fees
             Hazardous substances
             Administrative remedies
             Environmental law
IDENTIFIER:  Superfund Program
             EPA National Priorities List
             
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