Our recent work  has identified several particular management challenges at EPA, including  the need to address workload and workforce planning, to ensure  consistent environmental enforcement and compliance data, and to better  coordinate with other agencies to more effectively leverage limited  resources. Addressing Workload and Workforce Planning Needs

EPA has struggled for years to identify its human resource needs and to  deploy its staff throughout the agency in a manner that would do the most  good. The agency has taken  some recent steps to improve its workforce planning. EPA has generally agreed with our recommendations and is in the process  of implementing them. Transforming EPA’s Processes for Assessing and Controlling Toxic Chemicals

As we reported in March 2009, EPA’s ability to effectively implement its  mission of protecting public health and the environment depends on  credible and timely assessment of the risks posed by toxic chemicals. Because EPA had not developed sufficient  chemical assessment information under these programs to limit public  exposure to many chemicals that may pose substantial health risks, in  2009 we added this issue to our list of areas at high risk for waste, fraud,  abuse, and mismanagement or in need of broad-based transformation. These challenges include (1) the  need to focus more attention on diffuse, or “nonpoint,” sources of  pollution to address the most significant of the nation’s remaining water  quality problems; (2) the unique challenges posed by deterioration in the  nation’s premier watersheds including, among others, the Chesapeake Bay  and Great Lakes; and (3) daunting challenges posed by the multibillion  dollar liabilities associated with replacing, maintaining, and building new  water infrastructure. Costs and Pace of Cleanup at Superfund and Other Hazardous Waste Sites

To protect human health and the environment from the effects of  hazardous substances, Congress enacted the Comprehensive  Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act in 1980, which  established the Superfund program. Among the key findings of our recent work  are that (1) cleanup costs are likely to be substantial, (2) problems with  the accuracy and completeness of data prevent the agency from estimating  future cleanup costs, and (3) several key obstacles have delayed cleanup  progress at Department of Defense (DOD) installations. As a result, we  recommended that EPA determine the extent to which EPA will consider  vapor intrusion as part of the listing process for the National Priorities List  and how this phenomenon will affect the number of sites listed in the  future. Addressing EPA’s Emerging Role in Climate Change

As one of the most complicated interdisciplinary environmental issues  currently facing the federal government, climate change poses particular  management challenges for EPA. Recent GAO work has also identified a range of climate change  management challenges for the federal government at large, including a  broad array of departments with diverse missions. For EPA, particular  challenges relate to the agency’s ongoing efforts to reduce carbon  emissions; to coordinate activities with other agencies; and to account for  and manage data on greenhouse gas emissions. We noted that EPA was addressing some of these  uncertainties (specifically by issuing a rule to govern underground  injection of carbon dioxide for geologic sequestration), but that “many of  them fall within the domain of the Departments of Energy, the Interior,  Transportation, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and other  agencies in a manner that would require collaboration between agencies  and, in many cases, coordination with state governments and other  entities.”
We recommended that EPA more comprehensively examine barriers to  the development of carbon capture and storage by identifying key issues  that fall outside the agency’s Safe Drinking Water Act authority. Washington, D.C.:   February 2011. Environmental Compliance and Enforcement: EPA’s Effort to Improve  and Make More Consistent Its Compliance and Enforcement Activities. Transforming EPA’s Processes for Assessing and Controlling Toxic Chemicals

Nanotechnology: Nanomaterials Are Widely Used in Commerce, but EPA  Faces Challenges in Regulating Risk. Chemical Regulation: Actions Are Needed to Improve the Effectiveness of  EPA’s Chemical Review Program. Reducing Pollution in the Nation’s Waters

Wastewater Infrastructure Financing: Stakeholder Views on a National  Infrastructure Bank and Public-Private Partnerships. Great Lakes Initiative: EPA and States Have Made Progress, but Much  Remains to Be Done If Water Quality Goals Are to Be Achieved.
Why GAO Did This Study

The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) overarching mission is to protect human health and the environment by implementing and enforcing the laws intended to improve the quality of the nation's air, water, and lands. EPA's policies and programs affect virtually all segments of the economy, society, and government. As such, it operates in a highly complex and controversial regulatory arena. In recent years, GAO's work has identified several significant and persistent challenges across a range of EPA programs and activities and has proposed corrective actions to enable the agency to more effectively accomplish its mission. Based on this work, this testimony highlights some of the major management challenges facing EPA today, the agency's efforts to address them, and the work GAO believes remains to be done.

What GAO Found

On the basis of recent GAO work, key management challenges facing EPA include the following: (1) Improving agencywide management. EPA has struggled for years to deploy its staff efficiently and in a manner that would do the most good. It has also sought to improve the reliability of its environmental enforcement and other program data, as well as its coordination among EPA offices and with other agencies to improve efficiency and leverage limited resources. Generally, the agency's initiatives in these areas have yet to achieve their intended goals. In this connection, GAO is currently examining the extent to which EPA is taking a coordinated approach in managing its laboratories. (2) Transforming EPA's processes for assessing and controlling toxic chemicals. EPA has yet to develop sufficient chemical assessment information for limiting public exposure to many chemicals that may pose substantial health risks. As a consequence, GAO in February 2011 reaffirmed the need to transform EPA's process for assessing and controlling toxic chemicals by continuing it as one if GAO's "high-risk" areas warranting increased attention by Congress and the executive branch. (3) Reducing pollution in the nation's waters. Among the nation's most pressing water quality problems with which EPA and other stakeholders struggle are the contributions of diffuse, or "nonpoint," sources of pollution and the challenges posed by deterioration in the nation's premier watersheds, such as the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes. Multibillion-dollar liabilities associated with replacing and upgrading the nation's aging water infrastructure are a looming issue that, if not sufficiently addressed, will impact water quality. (4) Addressing the cost and pace of cleanup at Superfund and other hazardous waste sites. EPA's Superfund program is intended to ensure the cleanup of hazardous waste sites on both private and public lands. Nonetheless, 30 years after the program began, GAO found that cleanup costs for remaining hazardous waste sites will not only be substantial, but that problems with the accuracy and completeness of data on the amount of remaining cleanup work prevent EPA from reliably estimating these costs. (5) Addressing the agency's emerging role in climate change issues. As a highly interdisciplinary issue, climate change poses management challenges for the federal government at large. For EPA, particular climate change-related challenges pertain to the legal and administrative barriers facing the agency in its ongoing efforts to reduce carbon emissions, its difficulties in coordinating activities involving numerous other agencies and other levels of government, and its efforts to account for and manage data on greenhouse gas emissions.

What GAO Recommends

GAO has made a number of recommendations intended to improve EPA's programs by, for example, improving the information upon which key regulatory decisions are based; improving oversight over enforcement and other key program activities; and improving EPA's coordination with other agencies in program delivery. EPA has concurred with most of the recommendations and has taken steps to implement some of them.