Identification, investigation, and cleanup of hazardous substances under DOD’s FUDS program are authorized by the Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP). Such actions must be carried out consistent with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) as amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA), which established DERP. The goals of the program also include the correction of environmental damage. To fund the program, SARA set up the Defense Environmental Restoration Account. DOD has established specific goals for the cleanup of properties, including FUDS, that have hazardous, toxic, and radioactive wastes in the soil and water. These goals include having an approved cleanup process in place or cleanup complete at 100 percent of all such properties by the end of fiscal year 2014. DOD has not yet set any goals for projects involving hazardous, toxic, and radioactive waste in containers, unexploded ordnance, other explosive wastes, or unsafe building demolition. Total spending for the FUDS cleanup program since fiscal 1984 is $2.6 billion. During the most recent past five fiscal years (1997-2001), annual program funding for FUDS cleanup averaged about $238 million, with program funding in fiscal year 2001 of $231 million. The Corps’ estimate of the additional cost to complete cleanup of the 4,467 currently identified projects is about $13 billion, not including program management or support costs or inflation beyond fiscal year 2007. Also omitted from the estimated cost is a revised cost projection for the cleanup of unexploded ordnance, which resulted from a recent survey of DOD training ranges. According to Corps officials, the revised cost projection for ordnance cleanup would add another $5 billion or more, depending on the level of cleanup selected, to the estimated cost to complete all FUDS projects. By the time all projects are completed, the Corps estimates that it will spend at least $15 billion to $20 billion cleaning up FUDS properties. At the current funding level, the Corps does not expect to meet the established goal of cleaning up FUDS properties with hazardous, toxic, and radioactive waste by fiscal year 2014, even if work could be deferred on all other projects, such as containerized wastes, unexploded ordnance, and building demolition, for which no goals have been established. In deciding which actions, if any, need to be taken at a potential FUDS property, the Corps generally follows the process established for cleanup actions under CERCLA. The process usually includes the following phases: Preliminary assessment of eligibility—The Corps determines if the property is eligible for the FUDS cleanup program based on whether there are records showing that DOD formerly owned, leased, possessed, or operated the property or facility. The Corps also identifies any potential hazard on the property related to DOD activities. The results of this assessment are detailed in an Inventory Project Report. If the property is eligible but there is no evidence of hazards, the property is categorized as requiring “no further action.” Site inspection—The Corps inspects the site to confirm the presence, extent, and source(s) of hazards. Remedial investigation and feasibility study—The Corps evaluates the risk associated with the hazard; determines whether cleanup is needed; and, if so, selects alternative cleanup approaches. Remedial action—The Corps designs the remedy, performs the cleanup, and conducts long-term monitoring if necessary. When all of these steps have been completed for a given project, or if no cleanup is needed, the Corps considers the project to be “response complete.” After all projects at a property are designated as response complete, the property can then be closed out. Property closeout may require concurrence by federal or state regulators depending on the type of hazard involved. A flow chart showing the decision process in the preliminary assessment of eligibility phase is shown in figure 1. Upon completion of the preliminary assessment of eligibility phase, a property enters the site inspection phase. The site inspection phase involves a more detailed examination of the property and related records to confirm that a hazard exists and that a cleanup project is required to remove or reduce the hazard to a safe level. After the site inspection phase, the Corps conducts a remedial investigation to assess the risk posed by the hazard and determine if a cleanup is necessary. A feasibility study is then performed to select a cleanup approach. The Corps develops more detailed plans for constructing and carrying out the selected cleanup approach during the remedial design phase. A project next moves into the remedial action phase. The remedial action phase can involve several steps including constructing or installing the selected cleanup approach, operating the approach, and long-term monitoring, if necessary. A flow chart for the site inspection through long-term monitoring process is shown as figure 2. Corps review of potential FUDS properties found that many properties are ineligible because they are still part of an active DOD installation or there are no records available showing that DOD ever owned or controlled the property. Many of the eligible properties did not require cleanup under the FUDS program because the Corps determined that no DOD-related hazards existed. As of October 1, 2000, there were 9,171 properties that had been identified by the Corps, the states, or other parties as potentially eligible for cleanup under the FUDS program. Of these properties, 9,055 had received a preliminary assessment of eligibility, 42 were still being assessed, and 74 properties had not been assessed yet. Based on preliminary assessments, the Corps determined that 6,746 properties were eligible and that 2,309 of the properties—more than a quarter of those assessed—were ineligible. In most cases, properties were ineligible either because the properties were still under DOD control (915) or because there were no records found showing that DOD had ever controlled the property (787). Table 1 shows the reasons that properties were found to be ineligible. Although the Corps initially found that 6,746 properties were eligible for cleanup, the Corps subsequently determined, on the basis of site inspections, that most of these properties do not require cleanup after all. Specifically, the Corps determined that 4,070 properties either do not have any hazards requiring DOD cleanup or else have hazards that do not meet the level requiring cleanup. Hazards requiring cleanup were found on 2,676 of the eligible properties. Figure 3 shows the breakout of properties by eligibility and those where hazards were found. The Corps identified 4,467 distinct projects requiring cleanup at the 2,676 properties that were identified as having hazards needing cleanup. At 25 of these properties, no specific projects have been identified as yet. However, after further investigation the Corps determined that projects identified at 405 properties were ineligible because other outside parties were responsible for contaminating the properties after DOD relinquished control. At another 33 properties, the identified projects were not recommended for further action or were not approved. The reasons for not recommending a project for further action or not approving a project varied. For example, the current landowner might have refused access to the property or might have already addressed the problem. The remaining 2,213 eligible properties had 3,736 projects requiring investigation and cleanup. Of these projects, 284 were not yet scheduled for action, 1,844 projects were under way or planned, and 1,608 were completed. Figure 4 depicts the status of FUDS projects with hazards that required cleanup actions. DOD reports on the status of its various environmental cleanup programs in an annual report to the Congress. However, as of the date of this report, DOD had not yet released its report for fiscal year 2000—the most recently completed fiscal year. According to the Corps’ FUDS database, there were 2,382 completed FUDS projects as of the end of fiscal year 2000, or about 53 percent of the nearly 4,500 FUDS projects that required cleanup. The completed projects figure includes those removed from the active inventory either as a result of a study or an administrative action or as the result of an actual cleanup action such as removing toxic wastes or treating contaminated groundwater. In fact, our analysis showed that over 57 percent of the projects reported as complete did not require any actual cleanup and were reported as complete on the basis of a study or an administrative decision. For example, 183 of the 205 unexploded ordnance projects reported as complete were closed based on a study, while only 22 required an actual cleanup phase. Further, the completed figure includes 774 projects that were ineligible for cleanup as part of the FUDS program. The Corps initially thought that these projects were eligible but later determined that they were ineligible because the contamination was caused by other parties after DOD relinquished control of the properties. The Corps made an administrative decision to classify these projects as “response complete” to remove them from its tracking system. If only the number of projects actually believed to require cleanup—3,148—was used as the basis for calculating cleanup progress, then only 1,020 projects or about 32 percent of those requiring cleanup have actually been cleaned up. Further, according to Corps officials, most of the projects cleaned up to date were the least complex and least expensive ones, such as removing underground storage tanks (668 completed projects) or demolishing buildings (198 completed projects). On the other hand, many of the remaining cleanup projects are high cost and technologically difficult. Consequently, cleanup of the approximately 2,100 remaining projects will require at least $13 billion (revised estimates may raise this to $18 billion or more) and take more than 70 years to complete based on current planned funding of about $200 million per year. According to Corps officials, reporting of completed FUDS projects follows DOD’s reporting policies for all its environmental cleanup areas such as base closures and active installations.