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Hazardous Waste: Facility Inspections Are Not Thorough and Complete

RCED-88-20 Published: Nov 17, 1987. Publicly Released: Dec 16, 1987.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the thoroughness and completeness of hazardous waste handler inspections conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and authorized states under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Administrator, EPA, should ensure that inspection guidance and regulations on how to conduct inspections are issued as scheduled.
Closed – Implemented
EPA has issued the scheduled inspection guidance documents. However, EPA does not plan to issue regulations because it believes the guidance documents provide adequate direction on conducting effective RCRA inspections.
Environmental Protection Agency The Administrator, EPA, should develop and implement a continuing and mandatory RCRA inspector training program.
Closed – Implemented
EPA has developed a RCRA inspection training program, which is mandatory for EPA inspectors and recommended to state inspectors.
Environmental Protection Agency To ensure that thorough and complete inspections are conducted and that information on inspection quality is available for use in determining the frequency of future oversight inspections, and in developing and assessing inspector training needs, the Administrator, EPA, should reinstate the target requirement that regions annually oversee 10 percent of state RCRA inspections and ensure that state performance in conducting these inspections is addressed in state grant reviews performed by the regional offices.
Closed – Implemented
The 10-percent target requirement has been reinstated in the EPA 1989 Regional Implementation Plan (RIP). The 1989 RIP also provides that regions consider state inspection performance in reviewing state grants.
Environmental Protection Agency To ensure that thorough and complete inspections are conducted and that information on inspection quality is available for use in determining the frequency of future oversight inspections, and in developing and assessing inspector training needs, the Administrator, EPA, should reinstate the requirement that regional oversight of state RCRA inspections be evaluated and reported in headquarters' regional program reviews.
Closed – Not Implemented
Under recent changes, EPA headquarters' regional program reviews focus on broad, rather than specific issues. Because state inspection performance has improved since GAO report RCED-88-20, EPA does not consider this a problem anymore.
Environmental Protection Agency To ensure that thorough and complete inspections are conducted and that information on inspection quality is available for use in determining the frequency of future oversight inspections, and in developing and assessing inspector training needs, the Administrator, EPA, should develop and implement a system to provide routine oversight over EPA regional and EPA contractor inspections, as well as documenting and reporting the results to EPA headquarters.
Closed – Not Implemented
Because overall inspection performance has improved since GAO report RCED-88-20, EPA does not consider this a problem warranting specific action.

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Topics

Environmental lawEnvironmental monitoringHazardous substancesEmployee trainingInspectionNoncomplianceQuality controlState-administered programsWaste disposalHazardous wastes