^£D srx
• A v
lSi
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General
At a Glance
12-P-0289
February 15, 2012
Why We Did This Review
The Office of Inspector General
sought to determine how the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) ensures that the quality of
compliance inspections at
underground storage tanks (USTs)
is protective of public health and
the environment. Preventing
releases through regular tank
inspections and maintenance is
key to protecting public health and
the environment. According to the
Office of Underground Storage
Tanks (OUST), the greatest
potential threat from a leaking
UST is contamination of
groundwater, the source of
drinking water for nearly half of
all Americans.
Background
There are nearly 600,000 USTs in
the United States. EPA annually
grants $34.5 million to states,
tribes, and territories to implement
UST inspection and compliance
programs. All states determine
compliance with UST regulations
through compliance inspections.
Controls Over State Underground Storage
Tank Inspection Programs in EPA Regions
Generally Effective
What We Found
We determined that EPA regions have management controls to verify the
quality of state UST inspections. All three regions where we conducted our
review had annually reviewed UST inspection programs to verify compliance
with requirements. Further, two of the three regions we reviewed conducted
more extensive annual reviews and made recommendations to improve state
UST inspection programs.
While we did not find any major deficiencies in the administration of the state
UST inspection programs or regional oversight activities, we have one
concern about EPA's oversight of state UST inspection programs. The
memoranda of agreement (MO As) between regions and the state UST
programs either do not exist or do not reflect changes resulting from the
Energy Policy Act of 2005. An MOA is an important management control
because it defines the roles and responsibilities between an EPA region and a
state.
What We Recommend
We recommend that EPA and states enter into MOAs that reflect program
changes from the 2005 Energy Policy Act and address oversight of
municipalities conducting inspections. The Office of Solid Waste and
Emergency Response (OSWER) agreed with our recommendation and we
agree that its planned actions meet the intent of the recommendation. Because
OSWER did not provide a planned completion date for the corrective action,
we consider the recommendation unresolved.
For further information, contact our
Office of Congressional and Public
Affairs at (202) 566-2391.
The full report is at:
www.epa.qov/oiq/reports/2012/
20120215-12-P-0289.pdf

-------