Various environmental statutes, including CERCLA and RCRA, govern the reporting and cleanup of hazardous substances and hazardous waste at DOD sites. Specific provisions in these laws establish requirements for addressing hazardous waste cleanup or management. Key aspects of these requirements for federal facilities are described below: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980 was passed to give the federal government the authority to respond to actual and threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, and contaminants that may endanger public health and the environment. The EPA program under CERCLA is better known as “Superfund” because Congress established a large trust fund that is used to pay for, among other things, remedial actions at nonfederal sites on the NPL. Federal agencies are prohibited from using the Superfund trust fund to finance their cleanups and must, instead, use their own or other appropriations. Figure 2 depicts the number of NPL sites listed by EPA as of November 2008, which totals 1,587 sites. Of these, 140 were DOD NPL sites, representing the majority of federal facility sites on the NPL. According to EPA’s 2007 annual report on Superfund, more than 75 percent of all sites on the NPL—both federal and private—were listed before 1991. Since fiscal year 2000, EPA has added five DOD sites to the NPL. CERCLA does not establish regulatory standards for the cleanup of specific substances, but requires that long-term cleanups comply with applicable or relevant, and appropriate requirements. These may include a host of federal and state standards that generally regulate exposure to contaminants. The National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP) outlines procedures and standards for implementing the Superfund program. The NCP designates DOD as the lead agency at defense sites, though as described below, it must carry out its responsibilities consistent with EPA’s oversight role under Section 120 of CERCLA, including EPA’s final authority to select a remedial action if it disagrees with DOD regarding the remedy to be selected. In 1986, the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) added provisions to CERCLA specifically governing the cleanup of federal facilities. Under Section 120 of CERCLA, as amended, EPA must take steps that assure completion of a preliminary site assessment by the responsible agency for each site in the Federal Agency Hazardous Waste Compliance Docket. This preliminary assessment is reviewed by EPA, together with additional information, to determine whether the site poses little or no threat to human health and the environment or requires further investigation or assessment for potential proposal to the NPL. SARA also added Section 211 of CERCLA, which established DOD’s Defense Environmental Restoration Program providing legal authority governing cleanup activities at DOD installations and properties. CERCLA Section 120 also establishes specific requirements governing IAGs between EPA and federal agencies. The contents of the IAGs must include at least the following three items: (1) a review of the alternative remedies considered and the selection of the remedy, known as a remedial action; (2) the schedule for completing the remedial action; and (3) arrangements for long-term operations and maintenance at the site. DOD and EPA are required to enter into an IAG within 180 days of the completion of EPA’s review of the remedial investigation and feasibility study at a site. SARA’s legislative history explains that, while the law already established that federal agencies are subject to and must comply with CERCLA, the addition of Section 120 provides the public, states, and EPA increased authority and a greater role in assuring the problems of hazardous substance releases at federal facilities are dealt with by expeditious and appropriate response actions. The relevant congressional conference committee report establishes that IAGs provide a mechanism for (1) EPA to independently evaluate the other federal agency’s selected cleanup remedy, and (2) states and citizens to enforce federal agency cleanup obligations, memorialized in IAGs, in court. Specifically, the report states that while EPA and the other federal agency share remedy selection responsibilities, EPA has the additional responsibility to make an independent determination that the selected remedial action is consistent with the NCP and is the most appropriate remedial action for the affected facility. The report also observes that IAGs are enforceable documents just as administrative orders under RCRA and, as such, are subject to SARA’s citizen suit and penalties provisions. Thus, penalties can be assessed against federal agencies for violating terms of agreements with EPA. However, at sites without IAGs, EPA has only a limited number of enforcement tools to use in compelling compliance by a recalcitrant agency; similarly, states and citizens also lack a mechanism to enforce CERCLA. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. In 1976, Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) giving EPA the authority to regulate the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. Under RCRA, EPA may authorize states to carry out many of the functions of the statute in lieu of EPA under a state’s hazardous waste programs and laws. Almost all states are authorized to implement some portion of the RCRA program. Forty-eight states are currently authorized to implement the RCRA base program to manage hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal. (Only Alaska and Iowa are not authorized to implement the RCRA base program.) Forty- three states are authorized to implement the RCRA corrective action program which expands a state’s RCRA authority to include managing the cleanup of releases of hazardous waste and hazardous constituents. EPA has a policy to defer sites, which are being managed under RCRA, from placement on the NPL, known as the RCRA deferral policy. Where this policy is applied, cleanup proceeds under RCRA, generally through an authorized state corrective action program, rather than CERCLA. EPA regions may defer a federal facility site to RCRA even if the site is eligible for the NPL. In 1996, Congress amended CERCLA to authorize EPA to consider non-CERCLA cleanup authorities when making a listing determination for federal facility sites if the site is already subject to an approved federal or state cleanup plan. According to EPA policy, the criteria to defer a federal facility site from the NPL to RCRA are: (1) the CERCLA site is currently being addressed by RCRA Subtitle C corrective action authorities under an existing enforceable order or permit containing corrective action provisions; (2) the response under RCRA is progressing adequately; and (3) the state and community support deferral of NPL listing. According to EPA, deferral from one program to another is often the most efficient and desirable way to address overlapping requirements, and deferrals to RCRA may free CERCLA oversight resources for use in situations where another authority is unavailable. In these instances, state agencies or another regulatory authority, rather than EPA, oversee the cleanup of hazardous substance releases. Other non-CERCLA cleanup authorities EPA considers in deciding whether to list a site include state cleanup programs (often referred to as voluntary cleanup programs) and DOD’s environmental response program. See appendix II for a summary of these cleanup programs. The NCP provides the methods and criteria for carrying out site discovery, assessment, and cleanup activities under CERCLA. Figure 3 depicts the process by which EPA and federal agencies assess a site for inclusion on the NPL and address contamination at federal NPL sites. The CERCLA cleanup process is made up of a series of steps, during which specific activities take place or decisions are made. The key steps in this process are included in figure 3. Site discovery. When a federal agency identifies an actual or suspected release or threatened release to the environment on a federal site, it notifies EPA, which then lists the site on its Federal Agency Hazardous Waste Compliance Docket. The docket is a listing of all federal facilities that have reported hazardous waste activities under three provisions of RCRA or one provision of CERCLA. RCRA and CERCLA require federal agencies to submit to EPA information on their facilities that generate, transport, store, or dispose of hazardous waste or that have had some type of hazardous substance release or spill. EPA updates the docket periodically. Preliminary assessment. The lead agency (DOD, in this case) conducts a preliminary assessment of the site by reviewing existing information, such as facility records, to determine whether hazardous substance contamination is present and poses a potential threat to public health or the environment. EPA regions review preliminary assessments to determine whether the information is sufficient to assess the likelihood of a hazardous substance release, a contamination pathway, and potential receptors. EPA regions are encouraged to complete their review of preliminary assessments of federal facility sites listed in EPA’s CERCLA database within 18 months of the date the site was listed on the federal docket. EPA may determine the site does not pose a significant threat to human health or the environment and no further action is required. If the preliminary assessment indicates that a long-term response may be needed, EPA may request that DOD perform a site inspection to gather more detailed information. Site inspection. The lead agency (DOD, in this case) samples soil, groundwater, surface water, and sediment, as appropriate, and analyzes the results to prepare a report that describes the contaminants at the site, past waste handling practices, migration pathways for contaminants, and receptors at or near the site. EPA reviews the site inspection report and, if it determines the release poses no significant threat, EPA may eliminate it from further consideration. If EPA determines that hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants have been released at the site, EPA will use the information collected during the preliminary assessment and site inspection to calculate a preliminary HRS score. HRS scoring.