The responsible parties may be bankrupt or recalcitrant. Sometimes multiple parties exist in a single case, and all deny responsibility. Coupled with the fact that large sums of money are involved, the process may become quite lengthy. For example, the agency often provides homeowners with bottled water when their source of drinking water has been contaminated by nearby Superfund sites. At every Superfund site, the abandoned waste must be removed, treated, or contained.
Investigations leading up to remediation can be extensive.
Here are examples of state and federal sites. At the time it was bid in 1990, the Sikes Disposal Pits in Harris County was the largest cleanup in the history of the federal program. The 185-acre property, located near Crosby, was used in the 1960s as a dump site for chemical wastes. Petrochemical companies had used unlined sand pits to dispose of organic chemicals and heavy metals, such as arsenic, mercury, cadmium, chromium, and lead. Investigators documented extensive waste at the site.