Summary

Although NASA began identifying contaminated sites nearly a decade ago, it did not complete a comprehensive hazardous site database until 1993. The extent of environmental contamination is still not fully known, and NASA facilities have a long way to go to finish cleaning up the contaminated sites. This report on NASA's environmental cleanup costs expands on information presented in GAO's September 1996 testimony (GAO/T-NSIAD-96-238) and assesses NASA's (1) determination of the extent of contamination it may be responsible for cleaning up and progress in its cleanup program, (2) cost estimates for accomplishing cleanup, and (3) efforts to determine whether "potentially responsible parties" should share in cleanup costs.

GAO noted that: (1) although NASA began identifying sites nearly 10 years ago, it did not complete a comprehensive hazardous site inventory database until 1993; (2) NASA officials said that they now consider their inventory of 913 potentially contaminated sites to be about complete; (3) NASA is also in the early stages of determining what it will cost to clean up those sites that require remediation; (4) however, NASA needs better data before it can reliably estimate its cleanup cost; (5) NASA headquarters had estimated its total cleanup costs would be $2 billion to clean up all its potentially contaminated sites over a 20-year period; (6) it later lowered the estimate to $1.5 billion by eliminating sites where it believed no further action was needed; (7) this estimate assumed that all sites of the same type would cost the same, regardless of variances in the extent of contamination; (8) at GAO's request, NASA field facilities developed estimates of remediation costs totalling $636 million based on actual costs, local quotes, and input from other federal facilities; (9) however, the field facilities' estimates excluded some of the 383 sites that had not been studied; (10) neither the headquarters nor the field estimates included long-term operation and maintenance costs or considered NASA's potential costs for remediation at its contractor facilities; (11) furthermore, neither estimate considered the potential effect of infrastructure changes that could increase remediation cost; (12) although NASA's overall budget is projected to decline over the next few years, NASA headquarters is projecting that environment funding will remain about level in fiscal year 1998, then increase somewhat over the following 4 years; (13) the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) allows federal agencies and other entities that carry out cleanup activities to seek cost sharing or cost recovery from the potentially responsible parties whom the law would hold liable, such as past owners, operators, and contractors; (14) CERCLA cost recovery can also be available to a party conducting a cleanup under Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) corrective action requirements; (15) despite the availability of a cost recovery mechanism, NASA headquarters has not had a policy for determining whether to seek contributions from other parties; (16) NASA is paying the remediation costs for virtually all of its field facilities; and (17) after GAO discussed the preliminary results of its review with NASA officials, they reported that they are now developing a policy statement addressing the issue of identifying and pursuing potentially responsible parties.