Insurers are spending heavily on Superfund claims for cleaning up hazardous waste sites - but only lawyers are cleaning up.

• The entire insurance industry spent about $1.3 billion on Superfund claims between 1986 and 1989 - of which about $1 billion or 77 percent went to lawyers.

• Four large insurers spent $470 million on Superfund claims in 1989 - $410 million of it on legal and related costs.

The bulk of insurers' legal expen- ditures went to fight claims by policyholders. The rest went to defend policyholders against allegations that they were responsible for pollution.

Insurers are rapidly increasing their Superfund spending. They spent almost twice as much in 1989 as in 1986.

Five very large industrial companies involved in cleanups have spent a smaller percentage on legal fees - so far.

• The companies' spending on legal and related costs averaged 21 percent, and ranged from 15 percent to 31 percent.

• But their legal costs are expected to rise when the companies try to get reimbursement from their insurers.

Under the Superfund law, any individual or company that deposited waste at a polluted site or that operates or has operated the site is potentially liable for the cleanup. Legal fact-finding may require the expensive recreation of events that are decades old.

Only 84 of the nation's 1,245 most polluted sites have been cleaned up since the Superfund law was enacted 12 years ago. The share of Superfund spending that went to lawyers between 1986 and 1989 could have paid for cleanups at an estimated 40 sites.

Source: Jan Paul Acton and Lloyd Dixon, "Superfund and Transaction Costs: The Experiences of Insurers and Very Large Industrial Firms," Report R-4132-ICJ, April 24, 1992, RAND, 1700 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138, (310) 393-0411; and Wall Street Journal, April 24, 1992.