Watchdog hits EPA on state oversight

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not corrected deficiencies in how it oversees states’ enforcement of federal environmental laws, its internal watchdog said Thursday.

The EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) identified the agency’s relationships with states as one of its top management issues this year.

{mosads}The report came months before the EPA plans to make final its most ambitious regulation in recent years, which will rely on states to limit the carbon dioxide emissions of power plants inside their territories.

The EPA also leans heavily on states to implement federal rules and grants on safe drinking water, hazardous waste disposal, water pollution, air pollution and other programs.

“The OIG has identified EPA oversight of authorized state programs as an agency management challenge since fiscal year 2008,” the watchdog wrote in its report.

“While important progress has been made, our work continues to identify challenges throughout agency programs and locations, and many of our recommendations remain to be fully implemented,” said the independent office, headed by Inspector General Arthur Elkins.

“We continue to perform work in this area and will continue to monitor the agency’s progress in addressing this challenge,” it said.

The report highlighted issues the OIG has previously identified with environmental programs in the United States Virgin Islands and North Dakota, along with more wide-reaching problems with how the EPA oversees state enforcement of drinking water safety grants, air pollution permit fees and sewage discharge permits, among other programs.

The OIG also drew attention to how the EPA combats employee misconduct along with fraud and abuse, which it identified as another top management issue.

“Recent events and activities indicate a possible ‘culture of complacency’ among some supervisors at the EPA regarding time and attendance controls, employee computer usage, real property management and taking prompt action against employees,” it said.

The House Oversight Committee has focused efforts recently on highlighting employee misconduct and making it a high-profile problem.

For example, at least two EPA employees have been accused of viewing pornography on agency computers while at work.

The OIG said the agency formally began the process in March of firing the employees. The proposed firings came 16 months after the OIG was notified about one employee’s porn viewing and 10 months after the other employee.

The OIG wrote about four other top management challenges at the EPA: oversight of the reuse of contaminated sites, managing the safety of harmful chemicals, analyzing the workload of program and regional offices and combating cybersecurity threats.