The EPA has met early goals in its hazardous waste corrective action program but resource and technical challenges put the program’s future in doubt, GAO has said.
Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, owners or operators must take corrective actions to clean up contamination at facilities that treat, store, or dispose of hazardous waste.
The EPA set a goal of controlling human exposure to contamination and the migration of contaminated groundwater at 95 percent of 1,714 "high-risk" facilities by 2005.
It also established a long-range vision for the program, going beyond controlling contamination to cleaning it up, and targeted 2020 as the year by which 95 percent of an expanded list of 3,747 facilities would have completed construction of all cleanup remedies.
EPA, states, and facilities have made considerable progress but EPA data also highlights the challenge in meeting the 2020 goal, according to GAO-11-514.
It said most EPA and state officials that it interviewed agreed that the 2020 goal was unlikely to be met because of fiscal and HR constraints.
Program cuts resulting from states’ fiscal problems and funding difficulties resulting from the economic downturn have added to resource constraints, GAO said.
Disagreement between industry and regulators over groundwater cleanup standards also remains a hurdle.
The EPA agreed to assess the remaining corrective action workload, determine the extent to which the program has resources needed to meet 2020 goals, and take steps to either reallocate its resources or revise its goals, GAO said.
