COMMERCE COMMITTEE DEMOCRATS
Congressman John D. Dingell, Ranking Member

Statement of Congressman John D. Dingell

December 22, 1998

Over the past 18 months, the General Accounting Office (GAO) has surveyed 3,036 potential National Priorities List (NPL) caliber toxic waste sites. Representative Manton and I requested this survey to determine the status of cleanups at these state sites and to answer the important question of whether it is likely that the site will need to be cleaned up by the federal Superfund program. This is the most comprehensive study conducted to date that helps inform Congress about the future size of the Superfund National Priorities List.

The GAO findings mean that there will likely be far fewer sites that will need to be addressed in the future by the federal Superfund program than was previously estimated.

The next Congress will need to look at the Superfund program in light of these findings, the significant progress in cleanups completed or underway, and the extensive number of sites with all final cleanup remedies selected as reported by the GAO recently.

Assuming adequate funding, the approximately 1,200 non-federal existing sites are expected to have all construction activities largely completed within the next five years. As of September 30, 1998, 585 sites had completed all construction activities. In August of this year, the GAO reported that all final cleanup remedies will have been selected for about 95 percent of the non-federal sites and for about 67 percent of the federal sites as of September 30, 1999.

These findings suggest that comprehensive and radical reform at this point would be unwise, counter-productive, and likely lead to a slowdown in Superfund cleanups.

While pointing to far fewer NPL sites, the GAO report does identify a significant number of sites needing to be addressed or further evaluated by state cleanup programs. The Federal Superfund statute has played a strong and important role in assisting state cleanups. Many state officials have informed Congress that the Federal liability scheme and the threat of NPL listing are important incentives for private parties to voluntarily clean up state sites.

This report also provides valuable information to assist the EPA in prioritizing site evaluations and in planning for the future personnel and contracting adjustments that will be necessary.

The GAO survey provides information that bears directly on the question of how many of the 3,036 sites are anticipated to be listed on the NPL and thus be addressed by the federal Superfund program:

• 41 percent or 1,234 sites should be deleted from EPA’s database immediately because final cleanup actions are completed or underway, no cleanup is needed, or they have already been screened out by the EPA ranking criteria.
  
• Of the remainder, 232 sites (or less than 8 percent of the total) were identified by either a state or EPA as likely to need cleanup as a Superfund NPL site. Eight of the 232 sites are federal facilities. The 232 sites are listed in Appendix III (pp. 320-349) of the report.
  
• However, of the 232 sites only 26 sites had agreement between the state and EPA that the site was a likely candidate for listing on the Superfund NPL. Under EPA’s current policy, the Governor of the state must generally concur in the listing.
  

• In addition to the 26 sites where there was agreement, EPA officials identified 106 other sites they believed were likely candidates for the Superfund NPL. However, for 38 percent of these sites, the state directly disagreed with EPA. For the remainder of these sites the state did not respond or its position was unknown.
  
• In addition to the 26 sites where there was agreement, state officials identified 100 other sites they believed were likely candidates for the Superfund NPL. Over half of these sites are located in only two states -- Florida and Illinois.

• Of the 232 sites cited as possible NPL candidates, 78 sites (34 percent) were identified as low, average, or unknown risk which makes their candidacy as NPL sites less likely than if they present high health or environmental risk.
  
• Of the 232 sites cited as possible NPL candidates, 154 sites (66 percent) have no identified responsible party or no responsible party whom officials believe is able and willing to conduct cleanup activities.
  
• In a November 1997 press release the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials stated that "the vast majority (95.6%) of sites listed on the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act Information System (CERCLIS) do not warrant listing on the National Priorities List.
  

The GAO solicited information from both the states and the relevant Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region using detailed written questionnaires for each of the more than 3,000 sites.