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 1997-09-04 monographic deposited born digital 29 p. GA 1.13:RCED-97-211 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-211 P0b002ee1803974f6 f:rc97211 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-211 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-211 RCED-97-211 Waste disposal Health hazards Waste management Hazardous substances Funds management Contract costs Environmental monitoring Pollution control Superfund Program EPA National Priorities List Letter Report RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO analyzed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Superfund spending from fiscal year (FY) 1987 through FY 1996 to determine: (1) of total Superfund spending, how much was for contractor cleanup work, in contrast with other activities; (2) of the money spent on contractor cleanup work, how much was spent on the actual cleanups, in contrast with cleanup preparation; and (3) whether a trend in spending for the actual cleanup could be determined for the years examined, and, if so, what accounted for that trend.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) both the amount and share of money spent on contractor cleanup work increased from FY 1987 through FY 1996; (2) in FY 1987, $261 million (in constant 1996 dollars) was spent on contractor cleanup work, or 37 percent of the total Superfund spending of $702 million; (3) in FY 1996, $696 million was spent on contractor cleanup work, or 49 percent of the total Superfund spending of $1.4 billion; (4) in both years, the remaining funds were spent on administration, enforcement, and other Superfund activities; (5) of the money spent on contractor cleanup work, the amount and share spent on the actual cleanups also increased from FY 1987 through FY 1996; (6) in FY 1987, of the $261 million the EPA spent on contractor cleanup work, $142 million was for the actual cleanups, or 54 percent of the total; (7) in FY 1996, of the $696 million the agency spent on contractor cleanup work, $614 million went to the actual cleanups, or 88 percent of the total; (8) in both years, the remaining funds for contractor cleanup work were spent for cleanup preparation--that is, to study site contamination and design the cleanup action; (9) annual spending for the actual cleanups increased by about $472 million from FY 1987 through FY 1996; (10) about half of this increase resulted from spending at a few large-dollar sites (defined as those with $10 million or more in spending during any 1 year); (11) there were no large-dollar sites in 1987 or 1988; but by 1989, two large-dollar sites accounted for $28 million in annual spending; and by 1996, nine such sites accounted for $238 million in annual spending; (12) two other factors each contributed about 25 percent to the increased in the spending for the actual cleanups; (13) first, the remedial action spending at sites other than the large-dollar sites increased from $61 million in 1987 to $180 million in 1996, primarily because the number of these sites grew from 38 in 1987 to 165 in 1996; and (14) second, the amount of money spent on removal actions increased from $80 million in 1987 to $196 million in 1996, primarily to address the immediate threats at sites that were not on the National Priorities List. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-211/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-211.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-211/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-211.pdf GAO/RCED-97-211 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-97-211 Letter Report GAO/RCED-97-211; Superfund: Trends in Spending for Site Cleanups; Waste disposal Health hazards Waste management Hazardous substances Funds management Contract costs Environmental monitoring Pollution control Superfund Program EPA National Priorities List