NASA Cleanup Program (GAO)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

NASA CLEANUP PROGRAM

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has terrestrial
contamination problems similar to those of the Department of Defense,
but because it's a smaller agency, they occur on a smaller scale. Like
Defense, its properties includes both government- and
contractor-operated facilities. Many NASA facilities, in fact, are
located within or adjacent to military bases.

Compared to Defense and the Energy Department, NASA's environmental
program is relatively new. It did not establish a national environmental
management program until the General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a
critical report in 1991.

Its estimates of future cleanup activity are undergoing repeated
revision. Footnotes to a recent GAO report (presenting data supplied
subsequent to GAO field studies) report that cleanup at of 679 sites at
22 NASA facilities will cost an estimated $1.4 billion. The remainder of
NASA's 913 listed sites require no further action. That figure could
rise significantly if NASA continues to support contractor cleanup
activity through overhead payments on contracts, and if NASA facilities
are closed and cleanup standards are tightened to permit residential or
other non-industrial uses.

After reviewing NASA's current cleanup program, GAO made four
recommendations:

* establish facility-based implementation schedules for completing
cleanup of contaminated sites;

* estimate probable future costs by (1) identifying all site-specific
costs, including operation and maintenance costs, for sites believed to
require remediation, (2) requesting contractors' remediation cost
estimates for cleaning up contamination at contractor facilities that
could represent future costs for NASA and taking any necessary contract
action to require such estimates in the future, (3) identifying
infrastructure changes, such as planned property use and applicable
cleanup standards that are consistent with requirements for the Annual
Accountability Report, and documenting the impact of facility closure
decisions on environmental cleanup costs;

* prioritize the application of environmental funds in its cleanup
efforts; and

* issue a policy statement concerning potentially responsible parties
and cost recovery.

The current GAO study provides detailed descriptions of contamination
and cleanup at three facilities: the John F. Kennedy Space Center at
Cape Canaveral, Florida; the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans,
Louisiana; and the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, northwest of Los
Angeles, California.

"ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP COSTS: NASA Is Making Progress in Identifying
Contamination, but More Effort Is Needed," GAO/NSIAD-97-98, June, 1997.
Free individual copies of GAO reports may be requested by calling
202/512-6000.

Lenny Siegel
Director, SFSU CAREER/PRO (and Pacific Studies Center)
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@igc.org