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Open Recommendations (73 total)

Drinking Water: Additional Data and Statistical Analysis May Enhance EPA's Oversight of the Lead and Copper Rule

GAO-17-424
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency
Priority Rec.
The Assistant Administrator for Water of EPA's Office of Water and the Assistant Administrator of EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance should develop a statistical analysis that incorporates multiple factors--including those currently in SDWIS/Fed and others such as the presence of lead pipes and the use of corrosion control--to identify water systems that might pose a higher likelihood for violating the LCR once complete violations data are obtained, such as through SDWIS Prime. (Recommendation 3)
Open
EPA agreed with our recommendation. In April 2023, the agency proposed revisions to the Consumer Confidence Report Rule that, if finalized, would require states and others with primary enforcement authority to annually report drinking water compliance monitoring data, starting in 2025. We think this proposed rule is a good step forward. Revisions to the rule are scheduled to be finalized by March 2024, after which EPA will need to demonstrate plans for using the improved compliance data. We are keeping this recommendation open until EPA provides us information that it has finalized its efforts. By implementing our recommendation, EPA will be better able to target its oversight of water systems.

Chemical Accident Prevention: EPA Should Ensure Regulated Facilities Consider Risks from Climate Change

GAO-22-104494
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2 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Assistant Administrator of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance and Director of the Office of Emergency Management, together with EPA officials at regional offices, should provide additional compliance assistance to RMP facilities related to risks from natural hazards and climate change. (Recommendation 1)
Open
EPA agreed with this recommendation. In December 2022, EPA noted that progress on this recommendation is contingent on the final rule being published, so the agency does not expect to develop additional materials to assist regulated entities in complying with the updated RMP regulations until after the final rule is published, currently scheduled for December 2023.
Environmental Protection Agency The Assistant Administrator of the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance should design an information system to track common deficiencies found during inspections, including any related to natural hazards and climate change, and use this information to target compliance assistance. (Recommendation 2)
Open
EPA agreed with the goal of this recommendation. In Spring 2023, the agency reported that it had completed the written business process for identifying common deficiencies and had begun the implementation.

Clean Water Act: EPA Should Track Control of Combined Sewer Overflows and Water Quality Improvements

GAO-23-105285
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Assistant Administrator of the Office of Water should develop a performance goal and measure(s) to track and assess the status of long-term control plans or other control plans for municipalities with CSOs. (Recommendation 1)
Open
In January 2023, EPA generally agreed with this recommendation. To enable tracking of the progress of CSO control efforts as described, EPA officials said full implementation of Phase 2 of the 2015 NPDES Electronic Reporting Rule would help. EPA said they expect that by December 2025, states, permittees, and others will report data electronically in a national database that can be used to track and measure performance goals for the CSO program. According to EPA, such data would enable it to track and measure progress as it will include the status of long-term control plans or similar efforts and elements related to water quality improvements. EPA also stated that the data will be made available online for regulators and the public to use to track progress and completion of control efforts. We will continue to monitor implementation of these actions.

Justice40: Additional Efforts Needed to Improve Tribal Applicants' Access to Federal Programs Under Environmental Justice Initiative

GAO-24-106511
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Administrator of EPA should ensure that the program offices of EPA Justice40 covered programs document previously identified statutory and regulatory barriers to access for tribal applicants informing their implementation of the Justice40 Initiative. As a part of this process, the agency should—with input from Tribes—identify any additional changes necessary to address remaining statutory and regulatory barriers, recommending legislative changes where the agency determines appropriate. The agency should make a summary of the results of this process publicly available. (Recommendation 1)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Drinking Water: EPA Should Strengthen Ongoing Efforts to Ensure That Consumers Are Protected from Lead Contamination

GAO-06-148
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Administrator, EPA, should take a number of steps to further protect the American public from elevated lead levels in drinking water. Specifically, to improve EPA's ability to oversee implementation of the lead rule and assess compliance and enforcement activities, EPA should ensure that data on water systems' test results, corrective action milestones, and violations are current, accurate, and complete.
Open
As of May 2023, we are keeping this recommendation open awaiting progress with the Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) modernization and the extent to which EPA can assess whether SDWIS data are current, accurate and complete. In December 2022, EPA indicated that it expects states to begin transitioning to SDWIS by the end of 2024 and to involve the primacy agencies in establishing data quality goals for monitoring violations and other information.

Clean Water Act: EPA Should Track Control of Combined Sewer Overflows and Water Quality Improvements

GAO-23-105285
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Assistant Administrator of the Office of Water should develop a performance goal and measures to track and assess the improvements to water quality resulting from CSO controls implemented by municipalities with CSOs. (Recommendation 2)
Open
EPA generally agreed with this recommendation. In January 2023, officials cited the need for full implementation of Phase 2 of the 2015 NPDES Electronic Reporting Rule. By December 2025, EPA expects states, permittees, and others to report data electronically in a national database that can be used to track and measure performance goals for the CSO program. According to EPA, such data would enable it to track and measure progress as it will include the status of long-term control plans or similar efforts and elements related to water quality improvements. EPA also stated that the data will be made available online for regulators and the public to use to track progress and completion of control efforts. However, EPA did not explicitly state that it plans to develop any goals and measures that it can use to track and assess the status of plans and improvements to water quality resulting from CSO controls. Even before it completes implementation of Phase 2, EPA can work with its state partners and others to develop goals and measures. We will continue to monitor this recommendation.

Justice40: Additional Efforts Needed to Improve Tribal Applicants' Access to Federal Programs Under Environmental Justice Initiative

GAO-24-106511
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Administrator of EPA should ensure that program offices implementing Justice40 covered programs maintain records of related consultations with Tribes and consider—with tribal input—publicly sharing a high-level summary of consultation results, as appropriate, to improve tribal applicants' access to information about tribal input on federal programs and decrease the burden on Tribes and eligible Indigenous communities. (Recommendation 4)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Water Infrastructure: Technical Assistance and Climate Resilience Planning Could Help Utilities Prepare for Potential Climate Change Impacts

GAO-20-24
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency
Priority Rec.
The Director of Water Security of EPA, as Chair of the Water Sector Government Coordinating Council, should work with the council to identify existing technical assistance providers and engage these providers in a network to help drinking water and wastewater utilities incorporate climate resilience into their projects and planning on an ongoing basis. (Recommendation 1)
Open
EPA neither agreed nor disagreed with our recommendation but since 2021 has taken actions that are consistent with our recommendation, including hosting webinars and trainings that reached 29,500 personnel at water and wastewater systems. As of April 2024, EPA officials said that the Creating Resilient Water Utilities (CRWU) initiative is now part of EPA's national Water Technical Assistance (WaterTA) effort, which is builiding a network of technical assistance providers that EPA said will help water systems address infrastructure issues including climate resilience. The agency said it is using the WaterTA effort to support effective implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which has provided $50 billion to address water infrastructure needs, including building system climate resilience. EPA officials said the CRWU program plugs into the WaterTA effort and receives referrals from technical assistance providers in the network. According to EPA officials, they have been engaged with members of the water sector coordinating committee but have not raised climate resilience and technical assistance as an agenda item. Further, the WaterTA providers include a wide range of university, nonprofit, and agency entities with water expertise but not all of them include technical assistance providers that have climate expertise. EPA officials said that the network will continue to evolve. The creation of the WaterTA network makes good progress toward coordinating technical assistance provided to water utilities. EPA should work with the water sector and other federal agencies to incorporate technical assistance providers with climate expertise that would help more utilities incorporate climate resilience into their planning and projects on an ongoing basis. We will continue to follow up with EPA as the network expands to include other providers such as climate technical assistance providers.

Chemical Accident Prevention: EPA Should Ensure Regulated Facilities Consider Risks from Climate Change

GAO-22-104494
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Director of the Office of Emergency Management should issue regulations, guidance, or both, as appropriate, to clarify requirements and provide direction for RMP facilities on how to incorporate risks from natural hazards and climate change into their risk management programs. (Recommendation 3)
Open
EPA agreed with this recommendation. The agency published a proposed rule in August 2022, which includes amendments that would explicitly require RMP facilities to consider the risks of external events such as natural hazards, including those caused by climate change. EPA expects to publish the final rule by December 2023.
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