^tDsrx
• A v
U3&J
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General
At a Glance
21-P-0132
May 13, 2021
Why We Did This Audit
The Office of Inspector General
conducted this audit of the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency to identify the trends,
as well as the key factors that
contribute to these trends, in
EPA-led enforcement actions
and results from fiscal years
2006 through 2018.
The EPA works to ensure that
regulated entities, such as
wastewater treatment plants,
pesticide manufacturers, and oil
refineries, comply with
environmental statutes. The
EPA reports enforcement
outputs, such as compliance
monitoring activities and
enforcement actions, and
enforcement outcomes, such as
penalties, injunctive relief,
supplemental environmental
projects, and environmental
benefits, to the public each year.
This audit addresses the
following:
•	Compliance with the law.
This audit addresses these top
EPA management challenges:
•	Overseeing states
implementing EPA programs.
•	Improving workforce/workload
analyses.
•	Integrating and leading
environmental justice.
Address inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391 or
OIG WEBCOMMENTS@epa.gov.
Resource Constraints, Leadership Decisions,
and Workforce Culture Led to a Decline in Federal
Enforcement
What We Found
A decline in the EPA's
enforcement activities may
expose the public and the
environment to undetected
harmful pollutants.
EPA-led compliance monitoring activities,
enforcement actions, monetary enforcement
results, and environmental benefits generally
declined from FYs 2007 through 2018 nationwide.
This downward trend also occurred at the regional
level and on a statute-by-statute basis. While
annual enforcement measures, such as penalty dollars assessed or commitments
to clean up pollution, declined, the results varied year-to-year based on the
conclusion of large cases.
The decline in enforcement resources was a primary driver behind the observed
declining enforcement trends, resulting in fewer compliance monitoring activities
and concluded enforcement actions. EPA leadership also made strategic decisions
that affected enforcement trends, such as focusing limited resources on the most
serious cases and, in 2017, emphasizing deference to state enforcement programs
and compliance assistance. From 2006 through 2018, growth in the domestic
economy and new laws increased the size and level of activity in key sectors that
the EPA regulated, but the EPA's capacity to meet that need decreased.
The EPA's annual enforcement reports do not provide context for understanding
the EPA's enforcement accomplishments and the impact these enforcement
activities have on human health and the environment. For example, the EPA does
not measure or report data for compliance-assistance activities, informal
enforcement actions, and noncompliance rates. The EPA could also provide
additional information that would provide context about the scope of activities
captured by its enforcement measures, such as the type of inspections conducted
and the types and toxicity of pollutants removed from the environment.
Recommendations and Planned Agency Corrective Actions
We recommend that the EPA's assistant administrator for Enforcement and
Compliance Assurance complete a workforce analysis to assess the Agency's
capacity to maintain a strong enforcement field presence that protects human health
and the environment and to integrate the results of this analysis into the Office of
Enforcement and Compliance Assurance's strategic and annual planning
processes. These two recommendations are unresolved. We made six
recommendations about how the EPA can improve the way it reports enforcement
achievements. The recommendation to measure the Agency's compliance
assistance and informal enforcement activities is unresolved.
List of OIG reports.

-------