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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General
At a Glance
2005-P-00018
June 13, 2005
Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Why We Did This Review
The Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has been
concerned about the backlog
of expired National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) permits for a
number of years. We sought
to determine:
•	how successful EPA and
States have been in
eliminating the backlog;
•	the potential environmental
impact of the backlog; and
•	how well measures reflect
environmental impacts.
Background
The NPDES permit program,
established by Congress,
regulates discharges from
point sources to water bodies.
The goal is to reduce the
discharge of pollutants to
protect and improve water
quality. Permits need to be
renewed every 5 years. As of
June 2003, EPA reported that
the backlog of expired permits
needing renewal consisted of
1,120 major permit facilities,
as well as 9,386 individual
minor and 6,512 general
minor permit facilities.
Efforts to Manage Backlog of Water Discharge Permits
Need to Be Accompanied by Greater Program integration
What We Found
EPA and the States have had varying success in eliminating the backlog of
NPDES permits requiring renewal, and more still needs to be done. The NPDES
permit program is only one of many EPA programs to improve surface water
quality. EPA needs to integrate its efforts to eliminate the NPDES backlog with
the other programs to improve and maintain water quality based on Clean Water
Act requirements.
To eliminate the NPDES permits backlog, EPA needs to address challenges
involving resource constraints, increasing workload, complex permitting issues,
external sources of permitting delays, and oversight limitations. EPA is now
managing the NPDES permit program through the "Permitting for Environmental
Results" Strategy that increases focus on environmental outcomes.
Only a small portion of waters currently identified as being "impaired" are
associated with backlogged permits. While the majority of backlogged permits
renewed had changes to discharge limits, the majority of the controls in the prior
permits generally did not appear to change. A large number of the new permits
contained limits for new parameters. Prioritizing permitting resources according
to potential environmental impact could result in greater environmental benefits.
The significance of the backlog could grow as a result of increased efforts in other
water protection programs that may necessitate NPDES permit revisions.
EPA's reporting on the NPDES backlog measure under the Government
Performance and Results Act did not provide an accurate view of the program
status or an adequate measure of environmental results. Prior to Fiscal Year 2005
revisions, the measures did not properly compare progress against baselines, and
the measures focused on outputs (tasks performed) rather than outcomes
(environmental results achieved). EPA had recognized these weaknesses and
begun taking corrective actions.
What We Recommend
For further information,
contact our Office of
Congressional and Public
Liaison at (202) 566-2391.
To view the full report,
click on the following link:
www.epa.qov/oiq/reports/2005/
20050613-2005-P-00018.pdf
EPA needs to build on the steps already initiated to reduce the NPDES permit
backlog. We made various recommendations to EPA to assist the Agency in such
efforts. EPA needs to take various steps to integrate the NPDES permit program
with other point source programs that support the permit program. This would
include creating a system for assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of its
efforts related to clean water. EPA also needs to continue making improvements
related to its measures, such as providing appropriate baselines. EPA provided
extensive comments in response to our draft report. The Agency emphasized that
through the "Permitting for Environmental Results" Strategy it is taking steps to
reduce the NPDES backlog and in general improve the quality of the Nation's
water bodies. We encourage EPA to continue refining this strategy.

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