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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General
At a Glance
18-P-0071
January 18, 2018
Why We Did This Review
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Office
of Inspector General (OIG)
conducted this evaluation to
determine how EPA grants
provided under the Beaches
Environmental Assessment and
Coastal Health Act of 2000
(BEACH Act) assist states,
territories and tribes
(collectively referred to here as
"grantees") to monitor the water
quality of coastal recreation
waters and notify the public of
contamination events.
The EPA provides grants to
eligible recipients under the
BEACH Act to monitor
recreation waters for bacteria
and to notify the public about
high bacteria levels to protect
human health. Under the act,
the EPA is required to, among
other things, submit reports to
Congress and establish
performance and water quality
criteria for grantees' coastal
recreation water monitoring and
notification programs.
This report addresses the
following:
•	Ensuring clean and safe
water.
•	Compliance with the law.
Send all inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391
or visit www.epa.gov/oiq.
Listing of OIG reports
EPA Has Not Reported to Congress on
BEACH Act Progress as Statutorily Required or
Fully Documented Budget Decisions
What We Found
Grantees use BEACH Act grants to
operate their beach monitoring and public
notification programs. While the details of
these programs may vary from grantee to
grantee, all programs must meet
performance criteria before the EPA
awards the grant.
Failure to submit required reports
and keep required records limits
congressional, public and EPA
knowledge about the impact of
the agency's BEACH Act program
and decisions regarding the use
of taxpayer dollars.
The EPA has not submitted the required quadrennial reports to Congress
describing the BEACH Act program's progress and impacts since 2006. In
response to an Office of Management and Budget request, the agency identified
the BEACH Act report as one it no longer believes should be a reporting
requirement; the agency compiled a list of all such reports to submit with its fiscal
year 2019 budget request. Submitting BEACH Act reports would inform Congress
and the public about efforts to implement the act, the need for additional water
quality indicators, and the need for improved monitoring methodologies.
Further, beginning in fiscal year 2013, the EPA stopped requesting funding for
the BEACH Act grant program based, in part, on its view that the grant program is
"mature." While the agency documented its initial deliberations and final decision,
it has not documented the requisite supporting analysis and information used to
make its decision. Grantees anticipate that a lack of future funding will negatively
impact their beach monitoring and public notification programs. Although the EPA
is no longer requesting funds, Congress has continued to fund the program.
Recommendations and Planned Agency Corrective Actions
We recommend that the EPA submit mandated reports to Congress, but the
agency disagrees and resolution efforts are in progress. We also recommend that
the agency (1) review and update, as appropriate, the controls for ensuring that
mandated reports are identified, tracked and submitted and (2) update the
reporting process, especially for elevating and resolving disagreements about
report content. The EPA agreed, and planned corrective actions meet the intent of
the recommendations. We also recommend that the EPA develop and implement
a tool to demonstrate compliance with recordkeeping requirements on budget
decisions, but it disagrees and resolution efforts are in progress. The EPA agreed
to update the agency records management policy and schedules as needed.
Noteworthy Achievements
In 2016, the EPA released a marine sanitary survey mobile application that
provides managers of marine beaches with an innovative and consistent
approach for identifying sources of beach pollution.

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