U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
                   Office of Inspector General

                   At  a  Glance
                                                            09-P-0231
                                                    September 14, 2009
Why We Did This Review

I We conducted this evaluation
to determine how effectively
the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has
fulfilled its role for managing
Great Lakes Areas of Concern
(AOCs) clean-ups, particularly
I for remediating contaminated
sediments. We examined the
results of EPA's Great Lakes
AOC effort and assessed
whether EPA has an effective
strategy to meet its goals.

Background

Thirty-one AOCs have been
I identified around the U.S.
border of the Great Lakes.
All but one are polluted with
contaminated sediments.  To
provide a funding source for
sediment remediation,
Congress passed the Great
Lakes Legacy Act (Legacy
Act) in 2002. EPA, through
the Great Lakes National
Program Office, is
responsible for working with
the States, localities, and
other stakeholders to remove
this contaminated sediment.
For further information,
contact our Office of
Congressional, Public Affairs
and Management at
(202)566-2391.

To view the full report,
click on the following link:
www.epa.qov/oiq/reports/2009/
20090914-09-P-0231.pdf
                                                               Catalyst for Improving the Environment
EPA Needs a  Cohesive Plan to Clean Up the
Great Lakes Areas of Concern
 What We Found
 Since 2004, EPA has completed five Legacy Act-funded contaminated sediment
 clean-ups and remediated approximately 800,000 cubic yards of contaminated
 sediment. However, EPA is challenged by the overall extent of the
 contaminated sediment problem in the Great Lakes AOCs. EPA is the
 designated lead Agency for the clean-ups; however, we found EPA does not
 have a regime for coordinating remediation activities across its program offices
 as well as with States, localities, and other stakeholders. While some results
 have been achieved in cleaning up individual sediment sites, EPA has not
 developed or implemented a coordinated approach to manage clean-ups.

 EPA does not know the full extent of the contaminated sediment problem.
 Accurate sediment estimates for more than 30 percent of the remediation sites
 remain unknown. Potential Great Lakes Legacy Act clean-up sites have an
 estimated federal cost of $2.25 billion.  Local partners will have to come up
 with a total of $ 1.21 billion in non-federal matching funds before Legacy Act
 assistance is provided. We estimate that at the current rate of progress, it may
 take more than 77 years to complete all of these clean-ups. Moreover,
 remediation will be conducted in the order that individual local governments
 and stakeholders can afford, rather than with regard to the risks posed to human
 health or the environment.  Without improved management, coordination, and
 accountability, EPA will not succeed in achieving the results intended for the
 AOC program.
 What We Recommend
We recommend that the Great Lakes National Program Manager: (1) establish
an AOC management plan that includes written designations of authority and
responsibility for each EPA program office with regard to remediating
contaminated sediment; (2) assign a lead EPA office to each Sediment
Remediation Site and determine the volume of contaminated sediment at each
site; and (3) annually measure and publish estimates of Sediment Remediation
Site sediment volumes, clean-up costs, and stakeholder progress for each site.

EPA concurred with developing a limited management plan (but not designating
site-specific leadership authorities), and proposed that this management plan
would also be updated to include annual reporting on Sediment Remediation
Sites.  However, these actions are insufficient and do not meet the intent of the
recommendations. The recommendations  are unresolved.

-------