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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General
At a Glance
19-N-0084
March 8, 2019
Why We Did This Project
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)'s Office
of Inspector General (OIG)
received a hotline complaint
about the status of the agency's
corrective actions in response to
OIG Report No. 11-P-0173. EPA
Promoted the Use of Coal Ash
Products With Incomplete Risk
Information, dated March 23,
2011. We conducted this work to
determine whether the corrective
actions were completed.
The OIG's earlier report
contained two recommendations
for the EPA Office of Land and
Emergency Management
(OLEM):
1.	"Define and implement risk
evaluation practices to
determine the safety of the
coal combustion residual
(CCR) beneficial uses EPA
promotes. (Note: CCR is
also known as coal ash.)
2.	"Determine if further EPA
action is warranted to
address historical CCR
structural fill applications,
based on comments on the
proposed rule and other
information available to
EPA."
This report addresses the
following:
• Cleaning up and revitalizing
land.
Send all inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391
or visit www.epa.gov/oia.
EPA Finalized a Study of the Historical Applications
of Coal Ash as Structural Fill
What We Found
The OLEM Office of Resource Conservation and
Recovery (ORCR) completed the corrective actions
associated with Recommendations 1 and 2 in OIG
Report No. 11-P-0173.
During this assignment, the ORCR informed us that it had
developed an unpublished document titled Information
Assessment of Historical Structural Fill Applications,
dated May 27, 2016. This document details considerable
efforts by the ORCR to address Recommendation 2 and states, "Thus, based on
the available information reviewed and the availability of response authorities,
EPA has determined that no further action to address historical CCR structural
fill applications as a general issue is warranted at this time." The ORCR also
concluded that existing statutory authorities are available to address
environmental concerns that may arise at a historical CCR structural fill site.
The agency did not make the determination public by publishing it on the EPA's
website. This type of transparency could provide information important to the
public.
Recommendation and Agency Corrective Action
We recommend that the Assistant Administrator for Land and Emergency
Management publish the document titled Information Assessment of Historical
Structural Fill Applications, dated May 27, 2016. The EPA agreed and completed
the corrective action by publishing the document in an internet database called
RCRA Online. (RCRA stands for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.)
The ORCR
determined that
no further EPA
action is
warranted to
address historical
structural fill
applications.
Listing of OIG reports.

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