.tftD stA/.	13-P-0168
° ^	U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	February 28,2013
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\ Office of Inspector General
At a Glance
Why We Did This Review
We conducted this review in
response to a congressional
request for information about
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) enforcement
results overall and, specifically,
for Region 7 in fiscal year (FY)
2010.
EPA is responsible for
enforcing many environmental
laws across the country. EPA
directs much of its enforcement
towards sectors with histories
of high noncompliance as part
of its national enforcement
initiatives. EPA annually reports
environmental and monetary
enforcement results to
Congress and the public.
This report addresses the
following EPA Goal or
Cross-Cutting Strategy:
• Enforcing environmental
laws
Response to Congressional Request on
EPA Enforcement
What We Found
EPA enforcement data show that the amount of monetary results EPA regions
achieve from concluded enforcement cases varies from year to year and from
region to region. While the number of enforcement cases concluded for FYs 2006
through 2011 remained relatively constant, the overall monetary results varied.
The variations are linked to when and where in the nation a few large cases are
concluded. These few large cases can result in unusually large monetary results
in any given year. National Enforcement Initiatives (NEIs) set by EPA's Office of
Enforcement and Compliance Assurance drove the majority of these large cases.
In FY 2010, Region 7 concluded two enforcement cases with large monetary
results. Both cases were pursued under EPA's NEIs. The two cases accounted
for 24 percent of all of EPA's monetary enforcement results for FY 2010 and
98 percent of Region 7's monetary results for FY 2010. Region 7's results
typically fell in the middle of the 10 regions. We found that from FYs 2006
through 2011, Region 7's enforcement results, regulated facilities, and staff
allocated to enforcement were proportional with each other. Large cases took
several years to close and relied on coordination with the U.S. Department of
Justice, companies, and courts, which meant that EPA did not have full control
over the year in which a case was settled.
There are no recommendations associated with this report. The Office of
Enforcement and Compliance Assurance and Region 7 agreed with the Office of
Inspector General's conclusion that enforcement results can vary from year to
year and from region to region based on when and where large cases are
concluded.
For further information, contact
our Office of Congressional and
Public Affairs at (202) 566-2391.
The full report is at:
www.epa.gov/oig/reports/2013/
20130228-13-P-0168.pdf

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