Date: 1990-10-24
Speaker: THOMAS A. LUKEN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. the majority conferees of the committee on Energy and Commerce believe it is of paramount importance that the administration not only provide adequate personnel to carry out required oversight at Federal facilities. including DOD and DOE facilities. but that the Federal agencies which have caused the pollution at these facilities are responsible for oversight costs to the same extent as private companies. Massive pollution problems exist at federal facilitiesthe estimated cleanup bill for the Department of Energy alone is a staggering $150 billion. One hundred and sixteen Federal sites. mostly belonging to DOD or DOE. now comprise about 10 percent of the national priorities list (NPL] of the most polluted sites in need of cleanup in the United States. The litany of pollution at Federal facilities is alarming. Through the country. at dozens of DOD sitesat the Picatinny Arsenal In New Jersey. the Joliet Army Ammunition Plant in Ilinois. the McClellan Air Force Base in California. and othersground water is contaminated with volatile organic compounds. explosive wastes. or heavy metals. such as lead. cadmium. chromium. and arsenic. The problems are as bad or worse at DOE facilities. such as the Fernald plant in Ohio. where both the underlying aquifer and offsite ground water. including drinking water supplies. have been contaminated with uranium. millions of pounds of radioactive and mixed wastes are buried in leaking pits and radongenerating K65 residues are stored in silos which are structurally so unsound that DOE hasnt even been able to sample and characterize their contents. Dangerous radioactive and hazardous wastes are also kept at the Rocky Flats plant in Colorado. where toxic chemicals have polluted the aquifer. At DOEs Mound facility. also in Ohio. ground water contaminants have include radioactive tritium and volatile organics. again polluting drinking water supplies. At both Hanford in Washington and the Savannah River Plant in Georgia. ground water has been contaiminated with radioactive materials at more than 400 times drinking water standardsand the list goes on and on. Moreover. the Federal Governments largest polluted facilities are considerably bigger than a typical facility where the pollution was caused by private companies. For instance. at Hanford alone there are almost 80 socalled operable unitsone might less euphemistically call them environmental messesmany of which need as much work as an entire private party site. Yet EPA has only four people assigned to oversee DOEs cleanup work at all of Hanford. Clearly. as at private party Superfund sites. rigorous EPA oversight is required to ensure that cleanups at these polluted DOD and DOE facillteis are carried out safely and effectively. EPAs many responsibilities include negotiating interagency agreements. reviewing environmental sampling and work plans. determining appropriate cleanup remedies and providing critically needed technical expertise which the polluting agencies themselves often lack. EPA must be given sufficient resources. both funding and personnel to oversee the cleanup of contaminated Federal sites. Under provisions of the Comprehensive Environmental Response. Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA]. EPA already has the clear authority to recover its oversight costs from Federal agencies. Section 120 of CERCLA establishes the Federal agencies. including DOD and DOE. "shall be subject to. and comply with. this act in the same manner and to the same extent. both procedurally and substantively. as any nongovernmental entity. including liability under section 107." Section 107 provides for recovery of "all costs of remedial or removal action incurred by the U.S. Government" which includes EPAs oversight costs. However. Department of Justice policy prevents EPA from exercising its statutory authority to recover these costs at Federal facilities. DOJ refuses to let EPA sue other Federal agencies. thwarting the fundamental intent of environmental laws. including CERCLA. that Federal agencies be treated the same as other polluters. Without adequate personnel for oversight. EPA will increasingly be snowed under by work which must be completed before Federal facility cleanups can move forward. One likely outcome is costly delays in cleanup while pollution continues to spread through the environment. Further. EPAs efforts to provide effective oversight could become a race between quantity and quality. with the citizens who live near these facilities as the ultimate losers. These concerns are heightened by an anticipated growth in EPAs Federal facility workload. In future years there will almost certainly be additions of Federal sites to the NPL. including possible sites from among the 86 defense bases scheduled to close by October 1995. 8 of which are already on the NPL. And. significantly. DOE has only recently embarked on its own mammoth cleanup program. which will continue for decades and will require increased oversight by EPA. The Office of Management and Budget has not been responsive in providing EPA with the personnel and finding needed for oversight of federal facility cleanups. This is a shortsighted approach which paves the way for delays in cleaning up polluted Federal sites. For years. radioactive and hazardous substances have been mishandled and released into the environment while the Federal agencies responsible for the pollution fought vigorously against compliance with the environmental laws. Now this same brand of recalcitrance threatens to stand in the way of making sure the EPA is able to adequately oversee the cleanups at these sites. We stress again that this situation must be righted and that DOD. DOE and other Federal agencies must pay for their oversight costs just as private partiesdo. ensuring that EPA is able to meet its obligations at Federal facilities and that cleanups will progress unimpeded by unnecessary oversight delays.