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Open Recommendations (74 total)

Clean Water Act: EPA Needs to Better Assess and Disclose Quality of Compliance and Enforcement Data

GAO-21-290
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Assistant Administrator of EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance should develop a plan to determine the overall accuracy and completeness of the permit limit and discharge monitoring report data recorded in its national database. (Recommendation 3)
Open
In June 2022, EPA stated that it agrees with the recommendation and will address it through a two-phase plan. First, EPA said it will continue to work with states to identify and correct problems that prevent proper transfer of discharge monitoring report data to the Integrated Compliance Information System (ICIS-NPDES) and work to maximize the amount of discharge monitoring report data and all necessary permit limit data in the system. Second, EPA will develop a methodology and outcome measure for tracking the extent to which the significant noncompliance national compliance initiative achieves reductions in illegal pollutant discharges. The agency stated it anticipates completing these steps by September 30, 2025. EPA's December 2022 response provided the same updated action for recommendation 3 and 4, which is not responsive to this recommendation. We requested EPA to clarify the status of this recommendation and will continue to follow further actions.

Artificial Intelligence: Agencies Have Begun Implementation but Need to Complete Key Requirements

GAO-24-105980
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency should ensure that the agency fully completes and approves its plan to either achieve consistency with EO 13960 section 5 for each AI application or retires AI applications found to be developed or used in a manner that is not consistent with the order. (Recommendation 29)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Clean Water Act: Changes Needed If Key EPA Program Is to Help Fulfill the Nation's Water Quality Goals

GAO-14-80
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency
Priority Rec.
To enhance the likelihood that TMDLs support the nation's waters' attainment of water quality standards and to strengthen water quality management, the Administrator of EPA should develop and issue new regulations requiring that TMDLs include additional elements--and consider requiring the elements that are now optional--specifically, elements reflecting key features identified by NRC as necessary for attaining water quality standards, such as comprehensive identification of impairment and plans to monitor water bodies to verify that water quality is improving.
Open
As of April 2024, EPA officials stated that they believe this action has been implemented. Since June 2020, they said the agency has taken several actions that change the focus of the total maximum daily loads (TMDL) program to focus efforts on implementing TMDLs. First, EPA developed a TMDL Vision document to focus on integrating and implementing different efforts to restore and protect the nation's aquatic resources. Second, EPA held regional meetings to discuss different TMDL topics such as monitoring, implementation, and reasonable assurance. Included in these discussions were good practices and examples. EPA officials stated that these actions have changed the focus of the program in the place of regulations. We agree that these actions are helpful and can take the agency and states in the direction of improving the TMDL program. However, the actions do not carry the force of regulations and we believe that the problems of nonpoint source pollution require stronger action such as regulations to be resolved. In July 2020, EPA officials told us they did not believe the agency could issue the recommended regulations under the agency's current authority. The officials also stated that EPA had no plans to develop TMDL regulations to address our recommendation. As of December 2023, EPA officials told us that the agency had not changed its position. We continue to believe that EPA has the authority to issue the regulations we recommended, so long as it follows all applicable procedural and substantive requirements. We also believe that the problems of nonpoint source pollution, which is a major contributor to pollution in our nation's waters, require stronger actions such as issuing new regulations. To fully implement our recommendation, EPA would have to develop TMDL regulations that include additional elements-such as comprehensive identification of impairment and plans to monitor water bodies to verify that water quality is improving-to ensure that TMDLs help water bodies attain water quality standards.

Water Quality: Agencies Should Take More Actions to Manage Risks from Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia

GAO-22-104449
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Administrator of NOAA and the Administrator of EPA, in collaboration with the members of the working group, should develop performance measures to assess the working group's efforts, including the extent to which the recommended goals from the Research Plan and Action Strategy have been achieved. (Recommendation 2)
Open
NOAA and EPA agreed with this recommendation and in late 2022 stated that they will work together, in collaboration with the working group members, to develop formal performance measures. They anticipate the measures will be complete by December 2024. We will continue to follow up on the agencies' efforts.

Child Care Facilities: Federal Agencies Need to Enhance Monitoring and Collaboration to Help Assure Drinking Water is Safe from Lead

GAO-20-597
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Assistant Administrator of the Office of Water should direct the Office of Water to specify how it will track progress toward the outcomes of the Memorandum of Understanding on Reducing Lead Levels in Drinking Water in Schools and Child Care Facilities and determine how it will regularly monitor and update the MOU. For example, the Office of Water could develop performance measures for each of the MOU's outcomes. In addition, the Office of Water could submit annual reports on progress toward achieving the MOU's outcomes or it could plan to update the agreement at specific intervals. (Recommendation 4)
Open
At the time of the report, EPA neither agreed nor disagreed with this recommendation and considered it to be redundant with existing activities. Since the report was issued, EPA has taken additional steps to implement the MOU, including developing tools for child care facilities to assist them with lead testing and remediation efforts. In our review of the workplans, EPA described some steps taken, including holding meetings with MOU partners and developing documents, such as a recordkeeping and reporting document for collecting drinking water samples for lead testing in child care facilities and small schools. However, as of July 2023, EPA has not provided documentation on how it plans to track progress toward meeting the MOU's outcomes or on how it will determine how it plans to regularly monitor and update the MOU. Once EPA provides this information, GAO will determine if there is sufficient information to close the recommendation.

EPA Chemical Reviews: Workforce Planning Gaps Contributed to Missed Deadlines

GAO-23-105728
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Administrator of EPA should direct the Assistant Administrator of OCSPP to develop a process and timeline to fully align its workforce planning efforts for implementing EPA's TSCA chemical review responsibilities with workforce planning principles and incorporate the results, as appropriate, into EPA's annual plan for chemical risk evaluations under TSCA. (Recommendation 1)
Open
EPA agreed with our recommendation in February 2023. In August 2023, EPA responded to us indicating that OCSPP plans to align its TSCA workforce planning efforts with relevant principles through (1) a workforce analysis to be completed in January 2024, and (2) a succession management plan to be completed by late 2023, and a follow-up succession plan in March 2024. These two concurrent efforts are planned as follows: (1) OCSPP will hire external consultants to conduct an analysis of the office's current workforce that will involve OCSPP management and employees to develop an analytical report that compares the organizations' s current workforce composition and skills to the capabilities need to achieve programmatic results. EPA intends the analysis to identify areas for improvement and make recommendations for strengthening OCSPP's workforce. EPA noted that engaging outside experts will help OCSPP build the administrative, educational, and other capabilities needed to support workforce planning. (2) EPA's Office of Mission Support is developing an agency-wide succession management plan to identify mission-critical positions that are vulnerable to turnover as a result of retirement, internal factors (e.g., resource allocations), or external market forces (e.g., Administration priorities). This succession management plan is also intended to address gaps in mission-critical positions by cultivating employees with the potential and desire to assume those duties and responsibilities in the present and future. After the conclusion of both efforts, EPA plans to monitor and evaluate progress by conducting periodic follow-up assessments. EPA expects to complete the first follow-up workforce analysis assessment in January 2024 and the first follow-up succession plan assessment in March 2024. EPA also indicated that, in March 2023, OCSPP was cleared to use Title 42 hiring authority to attract and appoint up to 25 individuals in mission-critical positions (e.g., scientists and engineers); the office strives to fill at least one of the 25 positions before the end of 2023.

Clean Water Act: EPA Needs to Better Assess and Disclose Quality of Compliance and Enforcement Data

GAO-21-290
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Assistant Administrator of EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance should develop a performance measure to track the reduction in pollutant discharges resulting from enforcement actions for facilities in significant noncompliance and disclose any limitations. (Recommendation 4)
Open
As of December 2022, EPA stated that in January 2023 it would begin measuring the average amount of pollutants discharged over the effluent limits set in CWA/NPDES permits. They planned to start by pulling the data for this measure for calendar years 2021 and 2022 and then pull the data annually thereafter in January of each previous calendar year. EPA stated it would identify trends in this measure over time to assess whether EPA and state compliance work is positively impacting the reduction in average discharges over the permitted levels. We will continue to follow-up on the agency's actions.

Artificial Intelligence: Agencies Have Begun Implementation but Need to Complete Key Requirements

GAO-24-105980
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency The Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency should ensure that the agency updates its AI use case inventory to include all the required information, at minimum, and takes steps to ensure that the data in the inventory aligns with provided instructions. (Recommendation 30)
Open
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Pesticides: EPA Should Take Steps to Improve Its Oversight of Conditional Registrations

GAO-13-145
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1 Open Recommendations
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency To improve EPA's management of the conditional registration process, the Administrator of EPA should direct the Director of the Office of Pesticide Programs to complete plans to automate data related to conditional registrations to more readily track the status of these registrations and related registrant and agency actions and identify potential problems requiring management attention.
Open
As of July 2023, we are keeping this recommendation open. GAO is awaiting additional documentation that the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention agreed to provide.

Water Quality: Agencies Should Take More Actions to Manage Risks from Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia

GAO-22-104449
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1 Open Recommendations
1 Priority
Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Environmental Protection Agency
Priority Rec.
The Administrator of NOAA and the Administrator of EPA, in collaboration with the members of the working group, should develop a national goal for the group focused on efforts to prevent HABs and hypoxia. (Recommendation 5)
Open
EPA and NOAA agreed with this recommendation. In March 2024, EPA and NOAA officials stated that they are taking actions, in consultation with other members of the working group, to develop a national goal focused on efforts to prevent HABs and hypoxia. In April 2024, EPA and NOAA developed national objectives for the working group, including an objective to help decision-makers prevent new or the expansion of existing HABs or hypoxia events through advancing the dissemination of information on their human-caused drivers. By developing and subsequently incorporating this objective into the national HAB and hypoxia strategy in the 2024 national assessment of HABs and hypoxia, the agencies, through the working group, could help increase federal attention on preventative actions to reduce the risks that HABs and hypoxia pose to tribal, state, and local communities. We will continue to follow up on this recommendation.
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