'EPA: Agency Lags By Years on Dozens of IG Recommendations'

'U.S. EPA has still not implemented recommendations from the agency's inspector general that stretch as far back as 2001, according to a recent IG review.'



'Most of the recommendations listed in the semiannual Compendium of Unimplemented Recommendations are from investigations and audits completed in the past three years. In total, EPA officials have missed the deadlines for recommendations from seven reports; the timelines for recommendations from 54 additional reports have been extended.

In the latter category, EPA is still working on implementing several recommendations that are more than five years old. For example, officials have yet to act on a 2001 recommendation to modernize the Permit Compliance System for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

That decade-old report found that state enforcement of discharge permits -- which limit pollutants in surface water -- could be 'much more effective in deterring noncompliance.' EPA now has until Sept. 30, 2012, to fulfill the recommendation.'

Emily Yehle reports for Greenwire November 7, 2011.

Source: Greenwire, 11/08/2011