First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Originally published in 1995, Analyzing Superfund outlines the key issues of the superfund reauthorization debate in the United States. The Superfund law faced criticism for being wasteful, inefficient and expensive. These papers sought to shed light on this argument in relation to clean-up standards, the liability regime, transaction costs and natural resource damage. This title will be of interest to students of Environmental Studies and professionals

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Superfund Program, focusing on: (1) trends in the number of reported hazardous waste sites; (2) EPA evaluation of potential contamination at these sites; and (3) recent estimates of the program's future growth. GAO found that: (1) the number of sites reported each year has steadily declined since 1985, primarily because the states believe that they can handle cleanups more efficiently and prefer to do the cleanups themselves; (2) states generally report sites that present challenging enforcement or cleanup problems; (3) the percentage of seriously contaminated sites among those reported has remained constant at 43 percent over the past 10 years; (4) EPA officials believe that contamination at newly discovered sites is not less severe, just less obvious; (5) EPA believes 1,700 new federal and nonfederal sites could be added to the National Priorities List through the year 2020; (6) the Congressional Budget Office believes that 3,300 new nonfederal sites could be added to the list through the year 2027; (7) the future Superfund workload could be higher than EPA estimated; and (8) any additions to the Superfund program will be difficult for EPA to manage.