Superfund Litigation Declining

NU Online News Service, Aug. 19, 3:34 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON–Superfund litigation–as measured by the number, duration and complexity of cases–decreased from fiscal years 1994 through 2007, the General Accounting Office said.

The GAO report released earlier this week said the number of toxic and polluted sites added to the Superfund priorities list each year has declined.

But a Washington lawyer who has dealt with the issue as private counsel since 1980 cautioned that "the Superfund program will continue to be alive and well, certainly for this Obama administration."

Ridgway Hall, a senior counsel and a former partner at Crowell & Moring in Washington, discussing the report said that "most, if not all, of the toughest sites have been cleaned up or otherwise addressed,"

Mr. Hall, a founding partner of the firm in 1979, is with the firm's Environment & Natural Resources Group.

He said other factors include the fact that the Superfund tax expired quite a few years ago, and under the Bush administration neither the Environmental Protection Agency nor Congress was as aggressive as their predecessors in funding the Superfund program.

He added that while under the Obama administration the number of sites addressed may increase, the total may stay on the low side because some of the remaining sites are big, complex areas of contamination including old mining locations, "so you may see a lot of energy and money going into them because of the complexity."

"The numbers can be misleading," he cautioned.

The GAO report said that the EPA added over 400 sites in fiscal year 1983, but only 20 sites a year, on average, for fiscal years 1998 through 2007.

And GAO said that the types of sites have changed, "as mining sites–among the most expensive sites to clean up–have been added to the registry in greater numbers."

The report said that for 1994 through 2007, the years the registry of data has existed, the number of Superfund cases filed annually in U.S. district courts decreased by almost 50 percent.

Also, the report said, litigation in federally initiated cases decreased as settlements prior to filing cases in court were reached more often, shortening court time.

"Furthermore, cases became less complex as fewer defendants were involved," the report said.