[CPEO-BIF] GAO report on Institutional Controls

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Improved Effectiveness of Controls at Sites Could Better Protect the Public

United States Government Accountability Office
January, 2005

Highlights

Institutional controls were applied at most of the Superfund and RCRA 
sites GAO examined where waste was left in place after cleanup, but 
documentation of remedy decisions often did not discuss key factors 
called for in EPA's guidance. For example, while documents usually 
discussed the controls’ objectives, in many cases, they did not 
adequately address when the controls should be implemented, how long 
they would be needed, or who would be responsible for monitoring or 
enforcing them. According to EPA, the documents' incomplete discussion 
of the key factors suggests that site managers may not have given them 
adequate consideration. Relying on institutional controls as a major 
component of a site's remedy without carefully considering all of the 
key factors - particularly whether they can be implemented in a reliable 
and enforceable manner - could jeopardize the effectiveness of the remedy.

EPA faces challenges in ensuring that institutional controls are 
adequately implemented, monitored, and enforced. Institutional controls 
at the Superfund sites GAO reviewed, for example, were often not 
implemented before the cleanup was completed, as EPA requires. EPA 
officials indicated that this may have occurred because, over time, site 
managers may have inadvertently overlooked the need to implement the 
controls. EPA's monitoring of Superfund sites where cleanup has been 
completed but residual contamination remains often does not include 
verification that institutional controls are in place. Moreover, the 
RCRA corrective action program does not include a requirement to monitor 
sites after cleanups have been completed. In addition, EPA may have 
difficulties ensuring that the terms of institutional controls can be 
enforced at some Superfund and RCRA sites: that is, some controls are 
informational in nature and do not legally limit or restrict use of the 
property, and, in some cases, state laws may limit the options available 
to enforce institutional controls.

To improve its ability to ensure the long-term effectiveness of 
institutional controls, EPA has recently begun implementing 
institutional control tracking systems for its Superfund and RCRA 
corrective action programs. The agency, however, faces significant 
obstacles in implementing such systems. The institutional control 
tracking systems being implemented track only minimal information on the 
institutional controls. Moreover, as currently configured, the systems 
do not include information on long-term monitoring or enforcement of the 
controls. In addition, the tracking systems include data essentially 
derived from file reviews, which may or may not reflect institutional 
controls as actually implemented. While EPA has plans to improve the 
data quality for the Superfund tracking system - ensuring that the data 
accurately reflects institutional controls as implemented and adding 
information on monitoring and enforcement - the first step, data 
verification, could take 5 years to complete. Regarding the RCRA 
tracking system, the agency has no current plans to verify the accuracy 
of the data or expand on the data being tracked.


To download the entire report as a PDF file, go to
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-163.


--
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org


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