The inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency has documented widespread failures by federal and local officials in several states to police even the most basic requirements of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts, the New York Times reported in its lead story yesterday.
In a series of reports based on research done over the past two years, the agency's auditors found wastewater treatment plants operating without proper permits, inspectors failing to visit factories, and states "falling short" of federal goals. And not only did state agencies fail to enforce laws and report violations to the federal government, but federal officials also were "remiss" in key areas of enforcement, the auditors found.
The two-year investigation points "to problems that are probably not isolated in the relatively few states where audits were done," according to senior EPA officials. Deputy Administrator Fred Hansen said the audits showed "a troubling trend of possible deficiencies," and he pledged an effort to remedy the problems.
In Idaho and Alaska, for example, the inspectors found that federal authorities had not issued or renewed permits for many factories and wastewater facilities, "often for as long as 10 years." Officials "issued only a handful of permits each year as part of a deliberate policy of focusing attention on a few major sources of pollution."
In New Mexico, nearly half of the sources of major air pollution as defined by the Clean Air Act were never inspected between 1990 and 1996. In 1995 and 1996 state authorities stepped reporting "significant violations" of air-quality laws to the EPA, as required. Even after the federal government complained and the reports were resumed, the state "neglected" to report about a third of violations.
The New York Times notes other shortcomings found in Washington state, Missouri, and the EPA regional office in Seattle, which "rarely" took enforcement actions even when polluters were known to be in "significant noncompliance."
The pollution control authorities criticized in the documents "generally agreed" with the findings and "promised to fix many of the problems." But according to the inspector general's office, "they appeared in some cases to be slow in adopting the changes they had promised."
Philip Wardwell of the New Mexico Environment Department said the study reflected a "healthy process": "I think [the] EPA needs to do this kind of follow-up to make sure that the states are doing enforcement evenly and fairly. If one state clearly has more relaxed standards, then businesses might flee to those states."
The reports can be found at the EPA inspector general's Web site. (John Cushman, New York Times, 6/7).
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