Environmental Protection Agency projects to clean up toxic waste sites went over their approved costs in about 10 percent of the time, and cost taxpayers $135.5 million in excess costs since 1980.
The EPA’s Office of the Inspector General released a report analyzing 504 state Superfund contracts between the EPA and states to clean up toxic waste sites. The report found 51 of the total contracts between 1980 and the end of 2014 exceeded the authorized estimated project costs.
Those excess expenditures cost taxpayers at the state and federal level $135,498,443, according to the report.
“Some regions did not adequately monitor the total [contract] costs to ensure they did not exceed the [contract]-estimated project costs,” the report stated. “The regions did not have uniform guidance for monitoring [contract] obligations and expenses, and monitoring procedures varied by region. EPA expenditures that exceed the [contract] cost estimates violate EPA policy and could lead to disputes with states that may prevent the EPA from continuing a remedial action at a site.”
The report found EPA performs most its clean up of Superfund sites within the parameters of contracts signed with states. Superfund sites are contaminated areas that require a long-term project to clean up.
Typically, the costs of cleaning up a Superfund site are 90 percent paid for by an appropriation from Congress and 10 percent reimbursed by the state in which the project takes place.
According to the report, the fact that the EPA did not have a uniform system for tracking costs at all of its regional offices led to cost overruns.
“Without effective oversight, excess [contract] obligations and expenditures may constitute breaches of the [contract],” the report stated. “The accrual calculation may not be accurate, and could misstate the financial statements and financial status of the [contracts].”
The EPA is prohibited by law from doing any sort of work on a waste site unless a state has entered into a contract with the agency. The contract must change if the costs exceed the estimates, and must show documentation of the state’s increased share of the project’s cost.
However, the ineffective oversight systems in place in each of the different regions have allowed cost overruns to take place.
According to the report, the EPA has fixed some its problems. There are only four projects that currently have reimbursable costs that exceed collections.
The agency has already started to act to make its oversight measures of Superfund contracts uniform across its 10 regions. New national model provisions have been issued by the EPA to use when considering Superfund contracts and seeks to ensure that actual costs will not go over what they’re estimated to cost.
