Superfund Cleanup Shortchanged, GAO Says

Nearly $6 of every $10 spent on the Superfund toxic waste cleanup program goes for support activities and not directly to site cleanup, a congressional report said Friday.

The Environmental Protection Agency disputed the analysis used by the General Accounting Office. It said many of the activities the GAO called “support” actually contribute significantly to cleaning the toxic waste sites.

The Superfund program, begun in 1980, has been under attack for years from critics who contend that too much of the money--both taxpayer dollars and funds collected from the oil and chemical industries--have gone for litigation and non-cleanup activities.

About $1.4 billion a year has been spent by the government on Superfund activities in each of the last three years and another $1 billion has been spent annually by private entities under threat of enforcement to remove toxic chemicals from contaminated sites.

But the GAO said the percentage of taxpayer funds going to contractors for direct cleanup work declined in each of the last two years. It said in 1998, just over 42% of the money went to contractors for cleanup activities and the rest for “support” activities, compared with just under 48% in 1996.

Last year, about 18% went for support activities related to specific Superfund sites and nearly 40% went to support the Superfund program generally, the report said.

“EPA has told Congress that the Superfund program is getting better. . . . In fact, it’s getting worse,” Rep. Tom J. Bliley (R-Va.), who released the report, said in a statement.

In a letter accompanying the congressional report, the EPA argued that the GAO did not take into account that many “support” activities--including lab, engineering and technical analyses--contribute to cleaning a site of contamination.