EPA’S Failure To Implement Mandated Superfund Provision Could Cost Taxpayers Billions
The Government Accounting Office told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works that EPA’s failure to promulgate mandatory Superfund regulations could cost US taxpayers billions of dollars in cleanup costs. The cleanup costs are those resulting from Superfund sites where there are no longer any financially viable company liable for the cleanup. The GAO focuses on hardrock mining cleanups. The EPA Inspector General has estimated that cleaning up these mining sites alone would cost up to $ 7.8 billion. The missing regulations are those implementing the 1980 Superfund provision requiring businesses handling hazardous substances to provide EPA evidence of their ability to pay cleanup contamination that could result from their operations. The GAO’s Senate testimony occurred on June 14, 2006.