United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1994-12-23 monographic deposited born digital 66 p. GA 1.13:RCED-95-46 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-46 P0b002ee180377ad4 f:rc95046 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-46 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-46 RCED-95-46 Environmental monitoring Liability (legal) Hazardous substances Waste disposal Administrative costs Claims settlement Court costs Contractor responsibility Environmental policies Pollution control Superfund Program Letter Report RCED Under the Superfund program, parties responsible for hazardous waste sites that are contaminating the environment are liable for cleanup costs. Responsible parties can include generators of hazardous waste deposited at the sites, transporters of the waste, and site owners and operators. In addition to cleanup costs, responsible parties must also pay legal expenses to allocate the cleanup costs among themselves, to settle with the government, or to litigate liability for cleanups. Responsible parties have complained that these costs--called transaction costs--are high and represent too large a portion of their total Superfund expenditures. GAO surveyed Fortune 500 companies to determine how much responsible parties have spent on cleanup and legal costs at Superfund sites and to identify factors that these parties believe have increased or decreased their legal costs. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-46/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-46.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-46/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-46.pdf GAO/RCED-95-46 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-46 Letter Report GAO/RCED-95-46; Superfund: Legal Expenses for Cleanup-Related Activities of Major U.S. Corporations; Environmental monitoring Liability (legal) Hazardous substances Waste disposal Administrative costs Claims settlement Court costs Contractor responsibility Environmental policies Pollution control Superfund Program