This paper discusses compliance agreements that affect the Department of Energy's (DOE)cleanup program. Compliance agreements are legally enforceable documents between DOE andits regulators, specifying cleanup activities and milestones that DOE has agreed to achieve.2Over the years, these compliance agreements have been used to implement much of the cleanupactivity at DOE sites, which is carried out primarily under two federal laws—the ComprehensiveEnvironmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, as amended (CERCLA) andthe Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, as amended (RCRA). Besides DOE,other parties to the agreements include various federal and state agencies that have jurisdictionover environmental and health issues. Our objectives were to determine the types of complianceagreements in effect at DOE cleanup sites, DOE's progress in achieving the milestones containedin the agreements, whether the agreements allowed DOE to prioritize work across sites accordingto relative risk, and possible implications the agreements have on DOE's efforts to improve thecleanup program.In summary,? The 70 compliance agreements at DOE sites can be divided into three main types: (1)agreements specifically required by CERCLA or by RCRA, (2) court-ordered agreementsresulting from lawsuits initiated primarily by states, and (3) other agreements, includingstate administrative orders enforcing state hazardous waste management laws.? DOE reported completing about 80 percent of the 7,186 milestones by the time originallyscheduled in the agreements. When DOE found itself unable to complete a milestone ontime, regulators have generally been willing to negotiate extensions, approving about 93percent of DOE's requests for milestone changes. In only a few instances have regulatorsapplied penalties for missed milestones.? Compliance agreements are site-specific and are not intended to provide a mechanism forDOE to use in prioritizing risks among the various sites. However, DOE's February 2002initiative to improve the Environmental Management program has as a central componentdeveloping risk-reduction priorities and concentrating its efforts on activities thatcontribute to risk reduction.
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