[CPEO-MEF] REGULATION: GAO report on Fort Meade (MD), McGuire AFB (NJ), and Tyndall AFB (FL)

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Superfund: Interagency Agreements and Improved Project Management Needed 
to Achieve Cleanup Progress at Key Defense Installations

Government Accountability Office
GAO-10-348
July 15, 2010


EPA and DOD use different terms and metrics to report cleanup progress; 
therefore, the status of cleanup at Fort Meade Army Base, McGuire Air 
Force Base (AFB), and Tyndall AFB is unclear. EPA reports that cleanup 
at all three installations is in the early investigative phases, while 
DOD's data suggest that cleanup is further along and, in some cases, in 
mature stages. EPA and DOD have differing interpretations of cleanup 
progress because they describe and assess cleanup differently. In 
particular, while both agencies divide installations into smaller 
cleanup projects, DOD divides them into units generally smaller than 
EPA's; therefore, DOD measures its progress in smaller increments. 
Further, because DOD did not obtain EPA's approval for key cleanup 
decisions, EPA does not recognize them. Unless key cleanup decisions are 
justified, documented, and available to the public for review and 
comment, they are not sufficient under the Comprehensive Environmental 
Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), and once an IAG is in 
place, some DOD cleanup work may have to be redone. When an agency 
refuses to enter into an IAG and cleanup progress lags, because of 
statutory and other limitations, EPA cannot take steps--such as issuing 
and enforcing orders--to compel CERCLA cleanup as it would for a private 
party. A variety of obstacles have delayed cleanup progress at these 
installations. First, DOD's persistent failure to enter IAGs, despite 
reaching agreement with EPA on the basic terms, has made managing site 
cleanup and addressing routine matters challenging at these 
installations. For example, in the absence of IAGs, DOD may fund work at 
other sites ahead of these NPL sites. Second, DOD failed to disclose 
some contamination to EPA and the public in a timely fashion, including 
lead shot on a playground, delaying cleanup and putting human health at 
risk. Third, the extensive use of performance-based contracts at these 
installations has created pressure to operate within price caps and 
fixed deadlines. In some cases, these pressures may have contributed to 
installations not exploring the full range of cleanup remedies, or 
relying on nonconstruction remedies, such as allowing contaminated 
groundwater to attenuate over time rather than being cleaned up. In 
particular, Tyndall AFB's long-standing lack of full compliance with 
environmental cleanup requirements, such as notification of hazardous 
releases and EPA's 2007 administrative order, has been an obstacle to 
verifiable cleanup of that installation. GAO is recommending, among 
other things, that EPA and DOD identify options that would provide a 
uniform method for reporting cleanup progress at the installations and 
allow for transparency to Congress and the public. EPA and DOD agreed 
with the recommendations directed at them. GAO is also suggesting that 
Congress may want to consider giving EPA certain tools to enforce CERCLA 
at federal facilities without IAGs. DOD disagreed with this suggestion. 
GAO believes EPA needs additional authority to ensure timely and proper 
cleanup at such sites.

...

For the original Highlights and a link to the full report, go to
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-348

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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