Clean Water Act: EPA Needs to Better Assess and Disclose Quality of Compliance and Enforcement Data
The EPA uses National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits to regulate wastewater discharges. However, nearly 11,000 facilities significantly exceeded their permit limits and illegally discharged pollutants into nearby waters in 2018.
EPA has a goal to reduce by half significant noncompliance with individual NPDES permits by the end of FY 2022. But the data that states and facilities report to EPA to help track compliance is incomplete and has errors.
We recommended (among other things) assessing the quality of the NPDES data that states and facilities are reporting so EPA can be sure it's making progress toward its goal.
What GAO Found
Since 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has modified one of its three national initiatives emphasizing compliance with the Clean Water Act and has discontinued two others (see fig.). The goal of the modified initiative is to reduce significant noncompliance with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits by half by the end of fiscal year 2022. Such permits set limits on discharges of wastewater from point sources, such as a pipe from an industrial facility. This goal supports EPA's strategic objective to increase compliance with environmental laws in its strategic plan for fiscal years 2018-2022. EPA discontinued its initiatives focused on animal waste pollution and raw sewage and stormwater runoff, returning these areas to the core enforcement program in 2018 and 2019, respectively. As a result, these areas no longer receive the heightened attention and focused resources of the national initiatives, but the agency still pursues enforcement actions when needed.
Changes in EPA's Clean Water Act National Initiatives
EPA posts data that states report on their NPDES compliance and enforcement activities to its website, but the data are not reliable for identifying changes in the number of activities states conducted since 2015. EPA's most recent assessment of states' data showed that two of 17 states met expectations for the accuracy and completeness of the data recorded in the agency's national database. EPA is working with states to improve their data, and it includes on its website disclosures by some states about problems and limitations with their data. However, the agency has not ensured that all states' disclosures are consolidated, complete, and updated. Until it does so, potential users of the data may not fully understand the data or the data's limitations.
EPA developed a measure to track progress toward its goal for reducing the rate of significant noncompliance by NPDES facilities with individual permits by the end of fiscal year 2022. While the measure tracks changes in the number of facilities in significant noncompliance, the results of the measure are unclear because data EPA needs to track compliance are incomplete and contain inaccuracies. According to EPA, about 70 percent of NDPES facilities have sufficiently complete data in the national database for EPA to track compliance. EPA is working with states to improve data quality, but it does not have a plan to assess the overall accuracy of the data. Until it does so, EPA cannot be certain what its measure is showing and if EPA is making progress toward its goal.
Why GAO Did This Study
EPA partners with states to oversee compliance with and enforcement of the Clean Water Act. In fiscal year 2020, there were roughly 335,000 facilities with active NPDES permits, which are used to regulate wastewater discharges under the act. In 2015, EPA began requiring states and facilities to electronically report data on their NPDES activities. EPA estimated that in 2018, nearly 11,000 facilities significantly exceeded their permit limits and illegally discharged pollutants into nearby waters, which may pose serious threats to human health and the environment.
GAO was asked to review EPA's enforcement of the Clean Water Act. This report examines (1) changes since 2015 in EPA's national initiatives for ensuring compliance with the act, (2) changes in NPDES compliance and enforcement activities since 2015, and (3) the extent to which EPA is measuring progress toward compliance with the NPDES program. GAO reviewed and analyzed EPA documents and data on NPDES compliance and enforcement activities. GAO also interviewed officials from eight states, selected in part by EPA region, to learn about their NPDES compliance and enforcement activities and data reporting.
Recommendations
GAO is making four recommendations, including that EPA consolidate, complete, and update disclosures of data limitations on its reporting website and develop a plan to assess the overall quality of state reported NPDES data. EPA generally agreed with these recommendations.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Environmental Protection Agency | The Assistant Administrator of EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance should revise its guidance to select files for its State Review Framework assessments of state-reported data to incorporate statistically valid probability sampling. (Recommendation 1) |
In June 2022, EPA said that it agrees with this recommendation and will address it as part of the fifth round of State Review Framework assessments. It anticipates this will be done by March 2023. GAO will continue to review EPA's actions as they plan and conduct this next round of assessments.
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| Environmental Protection Agency | The Assistant Administrator of EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance should ensure that consolidated, complete, and updated information on all data limitations is disclosed on the State Water Dashboard. (Recommendation 2) |
As of June 2022, EPA stated it has partially implemented this recommendation. For example, EPA has added links on its website connecting the content that explains different data limitations for users. In addition, EPA stated it has had discussions with stakeholders to identify and map what website content needs to be modified and how best to implement those recommendations. It said it is continuing working on a strategy to complete these recommended changes by September 2022. Implementing those changes includes but is not limited to consolidating content and editing some language on web pages to provide clarity. GAO will continue to follow up with EPA and review any further actions.
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| 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) |
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, the agency said it will develop a methodology to examine the accuracy of the discharge monitoring report and permit limit data received by the ICIS-NPDES system from authorized states. EPA anticipates completing these steps by September 30, 2025. We will continue to follow-up on the agency's actions.
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| 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) |
In June 2022, EPA stated that it agrees with the recommendation and plans to address it in two ways. First, it will continue to report annually the Estimated Water Pollutants to be reduced resulting from enforcement actions (Estimated Water Pollutants Reduced, Treated or Eliminated for the Clean Water Act National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Program). The page will also identify data limitations. 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. EPA anticipates implementing this new measure by December 31, 2022. GAO will continue to follow-up with EPA to review its progress on this recommendation.
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