Site Cleanup Progress
General Accounting Office Report
In 1980, the Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund, to clean up highly contaminated hazardous waste sites. The Act gave the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to clean up contaminated sites or to compel the parties responsible for the contamination to perform or pay for the cleanups. As of November 6, 1996, there were 1,205 sites on the National Priorities List (NPL): 1,054 non-Federal and 151 Federal. Cleanup actions fall into two broad categories: removal actions and remedial actions. Removal actions are usually short-term actions designed to stabilize or clean…
