The backlog of unfunded Superfund cleanups continues to grow, according to numbers recently released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The number of projects that are ready to begin, but cannot because of a lack of funding, rose from 20 in 2018 to 34 in 2019, the highest number since 2016, the last year operating under an Obama-era budget.
Steven Lamb, a principal with GZA Geoenvironmental, notes that the figures seem to correspond with what the industry has observed. Although backlogs have long been a challenge with the Superfund program, “In general, I think the feeling in the industry is that the federal budgets [for Superfund] have gone down,” Lamb says. “The money that [EPA] has earmarked to manage the Superfund program is less than it has been” in previous administrations.