Key Issues > Hazardous Waste

Hazardous Waste

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that one in four Americans lives within 3 miles of a contaminated site, many of which pose serious risks to human health and the environment.

ISSUE SUMMARY
KEY REPORTS
MULTIMEDIA
RELATED GAO LINKS
GAO CONTACT

Share This:

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 authorizes EPA and other federal agencies to respond to releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances and created a trust fund to provide for certain cleanup activities. EPA regulates facilities that may cause contamination and oversees the cleanup of the nation's most seriously contaminated sites under a variety of programs. Similarly, the Department of Defense (DOD) addresses hazards at thousands of contaminated areas on active and former military installations.

EPA's National Priorities List includes over a thousand of the nation's most seriously contaminated hazardous release sites, many of which pose unacceptable human exposure or unknown human exposure risks. In addition, former defense sites can pose hazards such as unsafe buildings, a variety of toxic and radioactive wastes, and ordnance and explosive compounds. DOD is obligated to ensure that former defense sites are cleaned up to a level that is protective of human health and the environment. DOD has identified over 4,000 formerly used defense sites, which were closed before October 2006, and over 5,000 sites identified by several Base Realignment and Closure commissions that require cleanup.

For more on GAO's reports and recommendations, see the key reports tab above.

Looking for our recommendations? Click on any report to find each associated recommendation and its current implementation status.

Superfund: Trends in Federal Funding and Cleanup of EPA's Nonfederal National Priorities List Sites

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-812

GAO-15-812: Published: Sep 25, 2015. Publicly Released: Oct 26, 2015.

Hazardous Waste Cleanup: Numbers of Contaminated Federal Sites, Estimated Costs, and EPA's Oversight Role

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-830T

GAO-15-830T: Published: Sep 11, 2015. Publicly Released: Sep 11, 2015.

Hazardous Waste: Agencies Should Take Steps to Improve Information on USDA's and Interior's Potentially Contaminated Sites

http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-15-35

GAO-15-35: Published: Jan 16, 2015. Publicly Released: Feb 13, 2015.

Superfund: EPA Should Take Steps to Improve Its Management of Alternatives to Placing Sites on the National Priorities List