Superfund: Progress and Challenges
Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Superfund hazardous waste cleanup program, focusing on: (1) the progress, cleanup pace, and accomplishments of the program; (2) trends in the amount of funds that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spends on administrative and support activities in the program and the amount of these costs that it recovers from parties contributing to contamination at Superfund sites; (3) the number and types of waste sites that may be cleaned up by the program in the future; and (4) barriers to the redevelopment of brownfields--abandoned and idled industrial properties, often located in economically distressed urban areas--and federal efforts to remove these barriers.