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GAO-01-431R 1 (2001-03-28)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptancf0001 and id is 1 raw text is: SGAO Accountability * Integrity Reliability United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 March 28, 2001 Congressional Requesters Subject: EPA's Expenditures to Clean Up the Bunker Hill Superfund Site This letter responds to your request that we review the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) expenditures for the Bunker Hill Superfund site, a mining area in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin in northern Idaho. In 1980, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act created the Superfund program to clean up highly contaminated hazardous waste sites. In 1983, EPA listed Bunker Hill on the National Priorities List-the agency's list of the nation's most contaminated sites-because contamination from heavy metals and other materials posed a severe risk to human health and the environment. EPA's Bunker Hill cleanup activities have focused on a 21-square-mile area (referred to as the box) located in the center of the 1,500-square-mile river basin. Originally, some of the mining companies responsible for the contamination agreed to conduct the cleanup work. However, EPA and the state of Idaho took over the majority of the cleanup effort following the bankruptcy of a major responsible party. In April 1995, EPA and the state of Idaho signed an agreement setting out a cleanup strategy with an estimated total cost of $126 million; the agreement also capped the state's share of these expenses at $12.6 million.' To implement this agreement, EPA segmented the cleanup work into various components-such as the demolition of industrial complex structures, removal of contaminated soil in gulches and creeks, revegetation of hillsides, and treatment of wastewater-and hired contractors to do the work. You asked us to determine (1) EPA's actual expenditures for the cleanup activities at Bunker Hill and how these expenditures differ from the estimate set forth in the agreement and (2) the reasons for any major differences (defined as $2 million or more) between the actual and estimated Bunker Hill cleanup expenditures for each component. 'Any change to this share would require an amendment to the agreement. GAO-01-431R Bunker Hill Superfund Site

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