GAO Audits EPA's Management Of Superfund Sites

In May 2015, U.S. Senators Rounds and Inhofe of the Committee on Environment and Public Works submitted a request to U.S. Government Accountability Office ("GAO") to "review EPA's efforts to clean up sites with contaminated sediments, with a particular focus on sites 'mega' sites where expected cleanup costs will exceed $50 million." Specifically, they raised concerns that EPA regions were no longer complying with "policies, guidance, and procedures" intended to improve the "timeliness, cost-effectiveness, consistency, and quality of sediment site cleanups." Senators Rounds and Inhofe further requested that GAO address the following issues:

• Whether EPA is following its policies, procedures, and guidance for sediment site cleanups;