Environmental Enforcement: EPA Cannot Ensure the Accuracy of Self-Reported Compliance Monitoring Data

EPA cited several activities under way to identify unregulated facilities and to take appropriate enforcement action, including development of pilot programs to identify unpermitted dischargers, the formation of a work group to study minor and unpermitted discharges, and the use of Toxic Release Inventory data to help identify these dischargers.

EPA has undertaken a cross-program enforcement effort that, among other things, identifies and targets unregulated facilities that violate various program requirements. A major element of this effort involves the agency's Data Integrity Enforcement Initiative, which focuses on achieving compliance with reporting, recordkeeping, self-monitoring, and other data requirements. The agency is attempting to ensure that all major EPA programs participate in this effort.

EPA's Office of Compliance has developed a Quality Management Plan (QMP) for all activities that generate, validate, prepare, or use environmental and compliance or enforcement data. The implementation process for the QMP consists of the development of data quality objectives, quality assurance project plans, standard operating procedures, and data quality audits. The systems and practices of the QMP provide a framework for assuring the quality of all environmental and compliance or enforcement data.

The Office of Water has requested regional water managers to ensure that state inspections include complete reviews of sampling procedures and that regions verify at least annually that state inspections routinely review permittees' sampling procedures. The Office of Solid Waste has taken similar steps to emphasize the importance of effectively reviewing groundwater sampling procedures and held a workshop of experts to develop more effective techniques.

EPA's quality assurance staff has developed generic training on quality assurance management and specific training materials on groundwater sampling and equipment decontamination. The Office of Water has placed greater emphasis on quality assurance and sample collection techniques and is experimenting with various training techniques to reach the greatest number of inspectors. The RCRA program has held a workshop of experts on data quality and published and distributed results.

The National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference (NELAC) is a voluntary association of state and federal agencies created by EPA in 1994 to establish and promote mutually acceptable performance standards for the operation of environmental laboratories. Both the RCRA and NPDES programs have agreed to recognize accreditation based on NELAC standards. EPA also established the Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board, a federally chartered committee, which provides consensus advice from a broad range of private-sector interests. The states, EPA, and other federal agencies have approved 70 percent of the standards and the remaining standards will be voted on at the next annual meeting.

ORD has expanded its management review program. Ten reviews, including the RCRA program, were completed in FY 1994 and 13 in FY 1995. The water program was reviewed in late FY 1995. The RCRA and water programs also are developing quality management plans to improve data reliability and accuracy.

ORD developed quality assurance performance standards to be required for all managers responsible for environmental data collection activities.

The Office of Water has included review of supporting documentation in inspector guides and training programs and is taking other steps to improve detection of fraud in self-reporting sampling data. The RCRA program has taken steps to improve inspector training on laboratory and sampling fraud. It has not inspected laboratories or required states to do so because of a lack of travel funds.

The RCRA and NPDES programs have emphasized fraud awareness in training materials but have not required state inspectors to take fraud training. The agency does agree that fraud awareness training is important and has emphasized it in training documents, courses, and other materials.