GAO says funds for cleaning up contaminated sites fall short

SALT LAKE CITY — Cleanup dollars for the nation's most seriously contaminated non-federal hazardous waste sites are not keeping pace with what is necessary to get the job done, even as more sites are scheduled to come online for remediation.

Funding at the Eureka Mills in Juab County was $3 million to $5 million short on an annual basis of what was required to facilitate the cleanup, and only a $26.5 million infusion of federal stimulus dollars allowed officials to control human exposure at the site.

A report released Tuesday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office reached out to state hazardous waste managers in each of the Environmental Protection Agency's 10 regions and found that cleanup of these "unacceptable human exposure" sites is dragging on.

Although Utah was not among the 10 states surveyed, the report did note that lead-contaminated soil and dust posed potentially severe risks in Eureka, and while between $13 million and $19 million was directed annually at remedial construction at the mining site, it fell short of what was needed.

The report found a similar scenario across the country with an overall $4.2 billion spent on 239 sites that did not keep pace with remediation goals.

The GAO reported, too, that demands for funding are only going to escalate because of additional sites slated to be added to the National Priorities List in the coming years.

In the next five years, the EPA estimates 101 to 125 sites will be added to that list — 20 to 25 per year — higher than the 16 sites typically added from 2005 to 2009.

Of additional concern is that neither regional EPA officials nor state officials interviewed by the GAO were able to provide cost estimates for cleaning up the sites.

e-mail: amyjoi@desnews.com