Record Display for the EPA National Library Catalog

RECORD NUMBER: 30 OF 97

Main Title EPA Can Recover More Federal Superfund Money.
CORP Author Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC. Office of the Inspector General.
Year Published 2008
Report Number EPA-IG-08-P-0116
Stock Number PB2008-109422
Additional Subjects EPA regions ; Superfund ; Federal money ; Superfund costs ; Cost recovery ; Billing process ; Evaluation ; System controls ; Recommendations ; Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Holdings
Library Call Number Additional Info Location Last
Modified
Checkout
Status
NTIS  PB2008-109422 Some EPA libraries have a fiche copy filed under the call number shown. 07/26/2022
Collation 28p
Abstract
We found that EPA regions have recovered $165 million of $294 million (56 percent) of the total Superfund costs from the sites we reviewed. Potentially responsible parties (PRPs) at these sites have generally paid what they have been billed. However, EPA has not recovered as much as $129 million (44 percent) and has determined it will not attempt to recover between $30 million and $90 million of this amount. This indicates a potentially significant breakdown in controls over Superfund cost recovery. Regions generally use similar billing processes to recover their Superfund costs from private parties, but exceptions exist. As a result of this evaluation, two EPA regions discovered they should have billed two sites approximately $1.8 million. These costs are now being billed. EPA regions have no formal process or information system controls to ensure staff correct costs assigned to the wrong site. Because of this lack of controls, we could not determine whether all incorrect costs were corrected and billed to the appropriate site. One EPA region did not include approximately $8 million in a negotiated settlement for a site because the costs were incorrectly assigned to another site. EPA has limited cost recovery performance measures and does not track the efficiency of cost recovery. Recommendations in this report will assist EPA in implementing improved controls for recovering Superfund costs.