U.S. Gets Stuck With Millions in Waste Cleanup Costs

The government has already written off $270 million that it was supposed to charge polluters for cleanup of the nation’s worst toxic waste sites and faces the prospect of absorbing even greater costs, an Associated Press review has found.

The Environmental Protection Agency says that in many cases the polluters have disappeared or are unable to pay. In others, the agency says, it simply lacks the manpower or evidence to file lawsuits.

The situation appears to be worsening for the Superfund program, which Congress created 13 years ago with the intention that polluters--not taxpayers--pay for the cleanup of hazardous waste sites.

“The number of cases that are eligible for cost recovery greatly exceeds the capacity of available resources,” Richard Guimond, acting assistant administrator for the Superfund program, wrote in a March 26 memo.

Internal EPA figures obtained by the AP show that the agency has recovered only $843 million--or less than a fifth--of the $4.3 billion in cleanup costs.

Of the remainder:

* $829 million is tied up in litigation or bankruptcy court.

* $270 million has been written off with no chance of recovery.

* $2.3 billion has yet to be pursued, with the legal deadline for suing for recovery in most of those cases expiring in the next few years.

The statute of limitations in Superfund cases, which is six years from the start of a cleanup, makes it impossible to go after polluters after the deadline.