The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) requires companies that treat, store, or dispose of hazardous waste to obtain a permit specifying how their facilities will safely manage that waste. EPA may authorize states to administer their own permitting programs for hazardous waste in lieu of the federal program, as long as these programs are equivalent to and consistent with the federal program and provide for adequate enforcement. Currently, almost all states are authorized to issue operating permits. Existing facilities, under certain conditions, can operate while EPA or the state authorized to implement the program reviews their permit applications. These facilities operate in “interim status.” The Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments of 1984 revised RCRA to include new provisions for cleaning up the contamination at facilities seeking permits to treat, store, and dispose of hazardous waste. The corrective actions can be specified in the facility’s operating permit or in a separate corrective action permit. EPA may also use its enforcement authority to require facilities to clean up hazardous waste contamination by issuing to the facility an enforcement order specifying the corrective actions it must take. The agency’s offices of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, and Enforcement and Compliance Assurance implement the Corrective Action Program through EPA’s 10 regional offices. In addition to giving 47 states the authority to issue operating permits to facilities, EPA has, to date, given 32 states the authority to issue permits to facilities to undertake corrective action cleanups. The states authorized to issue these corrective action permits must also, as part of the authorization process, demonstrate that they have adequate authority under state laws to enforce the program at all applicable facilities. RCRA, as amended, did not set any deadlines for completing cleanups under the Corrective Action Program. In response to the planning requirements established for all federal agencies under the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993, EPA has set two performance targets for all high-priority RCRA facilities by 2005. These two targets are to control the (1) human exposure to hazardous contamination at 95 percent of them and (2) release of contaminated groundwater at 70 percent. To implement the Corrective Action Program, EPA designed a cleanup process that generally includes four stages. (See fig. 1.) In the first phase—initial facility assessment—EPA or the state assesses the facility to characterize the risk posed and determine the need for immediate action. In the second phase—detailed investigation—the company that owns the RCRA facility conducts a more detailed investigation to establish the nature and extent of contamination released to groundwater, surface water, air, and soil; this phase can be complex and take years to complete. This investigation is conducted under EPA’s or the state’s review and monitoring and with the agency’s or state’s approval. If corrective action is needed, a third phase—remedy study—is started. During this phase, the company must complete a corrective measures study that describes the advantages, disadvantages, and costs of various cleanup options; EPA solicits public comments on the selected option and approves a final method. Finally, in the fourth phase—remedy implementation—the company implements the corrective measure selected; it is required to design, construct, operate, maintain, and monitor this remedy. To examine cleanup issues under the Corrective Action Program, we analyzed RCRA’s program data and interviewed cleanup managers from 23 companies that are responsible for corrective action cleanups. For these 23 companies, we visited 20 facilities selected from the 2 largest industry groups subject to cleanup under the program—chemical and metal manufacturers—and interviewed their cleanup managers at these facilities. We also interviewed cleanup managers of five corporations that are among those with the most facilities subject to corrective action cleanup nationwide. In addition, we interviewed EPA and state program managers who directly oversee the 20 facilities. Appendix I provides additional details on our scope and methodology. Since 1984, companies have completed cleanup action at about 8 percent (301) of the universe of 3,698 nonfederal facilities that treat, store, or dispose of hazardous waste, according to EPA’s data. These cleanups include about 5 percent (69) of the 1,304 facilities that EPA considers to be a high priority because they pose the highest potential risk to human health or the environment. EPA or the states have certified these facilities as having completed all cleanup action and needing no further monitoring. Of the 573 facilities that are implementing remedies, 395 of them—including 215 high-priority facilities—have put remedies in place to control human exposure to on-site contaminants. Another 34 facilities—including 18 high-priority facilities—have completed construction of at least one on-site remedy and are monitoring the effectiveness of that remedy. The rest have, at a minimum, presented their suggested remedies to the public for consideration and comment and subsequently received approval from EPA or the state to implement those remedies. EPA expects that a number of facilities, such as those designed specifically as waste disposal facilities, will remain in this category because they will require monitoring far into the future. The 461 facilities that are controlling contamination—297 of them high priority—have taken interim steps at the location to abate threats to human health and the environment and to prevent or minimize the further spread of contamination by, for example, halting the migration of contaminated groundwater. The interim measures are specific to the contaminated portions of the property and may not be facilitywide. The facility may need to take additional corrective measures to complete the cleanup. The 477 facilities—including 197 high-priority facilities—that are investigating contamination are completing, or have completed, a thorough study of the types and extent of on-site contamination. During this investigation, EPA or the state becomes actively involved with the cleanup, and the facility is considered to be participating in the Corrective Action Program. The 1,886 facilities that have not begun their cleanups under the Corrective Action Program may have been assessed by EPA or the state and ranked as high, medium, or low priority; however, the facility, EPA, or the state has not taken any further action under the program. Of these facilities, 427 are high priority. Figure 2 illustrates the number and percent of total and high-priority facilities that treat, store, or dispose of hazardous waste in each of the corrective action categories. Companies have made some progress since 1993, when we last examined the Corrective Action Program. At that time, EPA data showed that only about 1 percent of the facilities that needed cleanups had undertaken cleanup actions. In addition, some companies have undertaken cleanup actions outside of the Corrective Action Program, under state environmental programs, such as state Superfund or voluntary cleanup programs, and these are not reflected in EPA’s data. While some of these cleanup activities are likely to qualify as corrective action, according to EPA program managers, the extent of these types of cleanup actions is unknown. We also examined facilities in two categories of the program—the cleanup begun and cleanup completed categories—to determine differences in progress among the states that are authorized to implement the program and those that are not, EPA’s 10 regions, and the major industry groups that are responsible for corrective action. (See app. II for a detailed explanation of our analysis and the results.) Some of the significant variations in progress include the following: States. Facilities in the states authorized to implement the Corrective Action Program have achieved more progress in both categories than facilities in the states not authorized, regardless of the industry or cleanup priority of the facility. For example, 53 percent of the facilities in the states authorized to implement the program have their cleanups under way, compared with 41 percent in the states not authorized for the program. EPA regions. The regions differ significantly in the percentage of cleanups they have under way or completed. For example, the Denver region has cleanups under way at about 92 percent of its facilities, while the Boston region has about 23 percent of its cleanups under way. The Denver region has completed cleanups at 12 percent of its high-priority facilities, while each of the Boston, Philadelphia, and Atlanta regions has completed less than 5 percent of its facility cleanups, regardless of priority. Industry. Industry’s progress also varies. Petroleum and coal facilities have the largest percentage of cleanups under way at high-priority facilities—87 percent—while metals manufacturing facilities have the smallest—51 percent. Electrical, gas, and sanitary facilities have the highest percentage of completed cleanups—11 percent—regardless of priority, while metal manufacturing facilities have the lowest—5 percent. Appendix III details cleanup progress, by category, for states, EPA regions, and industries. Four key factors are hampering cleanups, according to the cleanup managers we spoke with at EPA and the companies. First, the RCRA cleanup process is time-consuming and costly. Second, EPA, the states, and companies often disagree on how to approach cleanup at a facility, including the standards and remedies that facilities should use. Third, because cleanups under the Corrective Action Program are expensive and drawn-out, unless EPA or a state directs a company to begin cleanup under the program, a company tends to initiate cleanup at its facilities only when it has economic incentives to do so. Finally, EPA and some states lack the resources needed to direct more companies to begin cleanups at the facilities not yet in the program and to provide timely oversight of cleanups already under way. According to cleanup managers from each of the 23 companies we reviewed, the RCRA cleanup process is sometimes unnecessarily time-consuming and costly. According to EPA officials, the complexity of many RCRA facilities—especially the high-priority ones—adds to the time and cost of cleanups. However, the industry representatives stated that the duplicative and restrictive nature of the cleanup process EPA and the states have implemented adds more time and cost than warranted.