Superfund: Techniques to Reduce Legal Expenses Have Not Been Used Often
(Testimony, 11/04/93, GAO/T-RCED-94-44).

Parties responsible for cleaning up hazardous waste sites have been
complaining about excessive costs.  The Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) has several tools at its disposal to reduce such transaction
costs.  These tools range from expedited settlements for parties
responsible for small quantities of low-toxicity waste to mixed-funding
agreements between EPA and responsible parties to share cleanup costs.
GAO testified that EPA has made little use of these settlement tools,
mainly because EPA has not strongly encouraged its regional offices to
use them.  EPA has been primarily concerned with getting as many
responsible-party-financed cleanups underway as quickly as possible and
has viewed the settlement tools as diverting enforcement resources from
this effort.  Although EPA has been giving the settlement tools more
priority recently, its efforts at this point are not fully operational
but mostly involve pilot projects at selected regions. GAO generally
supports the use of settlement tools to lower transaction costs, but
expanded use of one of these tools--mixed funding--could prove expensive
for the government and could complicate settlement negotiations.

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

 REPORTNUM:  T-RCED-94-44
     TITLE:  Superfund: Techniques to Reduce Legal Expenses Have Not 
             Been Used Often
      DATE:  11/04/93
   SUBJECT:  Legal fees
             Hazardous substances
             Waste disposal
             Liability (legal)
             Claims settlement
             Pollution control
             Industrial wastes
             Administrative remedies
             Environmental monitoring
             Cost control
IDENTIFIER:  Superfund Program
             EPA National Priorities List
             
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