Audit Says Lax EPA Collecting Loses Millions

The Environmental Protection Agency is losing millions of dollars in potential Superfund money because it has not been aggressive in collecting money from those responsible for dumping toxic wastes, an audit released Friday showed.

The report by the EPA Inspector General’s Office found that the Superfund toxic waste cleanup program negotiated 84 cases totaling $26 million in settlements between December, 1980, and September, 1985. Of that sum, the program collected $14 million.

During the same period, the program spent $1.3 billion.

“Unless EPA becomes more aggressive in pursuing cost recovery actions, its ability to clean up the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites could be impeded because the Trust Fund (that pays for cleanup work) will not be sufficiently replenished,” the report said.

Cites Other Settlements

In a letter included in the audit report, Assistant EPA Administrator J. Winston Porter said the inspector general’s findings “do not reflect the total scope of the enforcement program.”

He said negotiations with other parties responsible for toxic dump sites have led to settlements worth about $477 million in cleanup costs. Other settlements worth about $440 million are pending, he wrote.

Cleanup work under the program has stalled because the Superfund law expired last Sept. 30, and Congress has been unable to agree on terms for a five-year, $8.5-billion extension.