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

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

The GAO report released earlier this week said the number oftoxic and polluted sites added to the Superfund priorities listeach year has declined.

But a Washington lawyer who has dealt with the issue as privatecounsel since 1980 cautioned that "the Superfund program willcontinue to be alive and well, certainly for this Obamaadministration."

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 otherwiseaddressed,"

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

He said other factors include the fact that the Superfund taxexpired quite a few years ago, and under the Bush administrationneither the Environmental Protection Agency nor Congress was asaggressive as their predecessors in funding the Superfundprogram.

He added that while under the Obama administration the number ofsites addressed may increase, the total may stay on the low sidebecause some of the remaining sites are big, complex areas ofcontamination including old mining locations, "so you may see a lotof 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 fiscalyear 1983, but only 20 sites a year, on average, for fiscal years1998 through 2007.

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

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

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

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