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Recommendations Database

GAO’s recommendations database contains report recommendations that still need to be addressed. GAO’s priority recommendations are those that we believe warrant priority attention. We sent letters to the heads of key departments and agencies, urging them to continue focusing on these issues. Below you can search only priority recommendations, or search all recommendations.

Our recommendations help congressional and agency leaders prepare for appropriations and oversight activities, as well as help improve government operations. Moreover, when implemented, some of our priority recommendations can save large amounts of money, help Congress make decisions on major issues, and substantially improve or transform major government programs or agencies, among other benefits.

As of October 25, 2020, there are 4812 open recommendations, of which 473 are priority recommendations. Recommendations remain open until they are designated as Closed-implemented or Closed-not implemented.

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Results:

Subject Term: "Water quality management"

1 publication with a total of 3 open recommendations including 3 priority recommendations
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Drinking Water: Additional Data and Statistical Analysis May Enhance EPA's Oversight of the Lead and Copper Rule
GAO-17-424, Sep 1, 2017
Director: Alfredo Gómez
Phone: (202) 512-3841

3 open recommendations
including 3 priority recommendations
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Recommendation: The Assistant Administrator for Water of EPA's Office of Water should require states to report available information about lead pipes to EPA's Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS)/Fed (or a future redesign such as SDWIS Prime) database, in its upcoming revision of the LCR. (Recommendation 1)

Agency: Environmental Protection Agency
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: As of July 2020 there has been no change in the status of this recommendation. In July 2019, EPA said that the 2016 America's Water Infrastructure Act (AWIA) requires EPA to conduct an assessment of the costs to replace lead service lines and that EPA would conduct this assessment (a survey) in 2020. In a previous update, EPA said that it would consider GAO's recommendation to require states to report available information about lead pipes along with those of other stakeholders as part of the development of the revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule. EPA officials estimated that the agency would publish a proposal for the revisions in 2019.
Recommendation: The Assistant Administrator for Water of EPA's Office of Water should require states to report all 90th percentile sample results for small water systems to EPA's SDWIS/Fed (or a future redesign such as SDWIS Prime) database, in its upcoming revision of the LCR. (Recommendation 2)

Agency: Environmental Protection Agency
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: As of July 2020 there has been no change in the status of this recommendation. In July 2019, EPA said that it would consider GAO's recommendation to require states to report all 90th percentile sample results for small systems along with those of other stakeholders as part of the development of the revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule. EPA officials estimated that a proposal for the revisions would be published in 2019.
Recommendation: 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)

Agency: Environmental Protection Agency
Status: Open
Priority recommendation

Comments: As of July 2020 there has been no change in the status of this recommendation. In July 2019, EPA stated that the agency developed a Lead and Cooper Rule (LCR) violation reporting tool that is updated and distributed to the EPA regional offices on a quarterly basis. This tool, according to EPA, enhances national oversight by fostering closer engagement with the regional offices to continuously assess any new water systems violating the LCR. EPA has stated that the agency has also developed, and shared with its regional offices, an internal resource to make ad hoc assessments of water systems, nationwide, that would benefit most from assistance with lead service line replacements or (for water systems without lead service lines) corrosion control treatment installation/re-optimization. According to EPA, this internal resource takes a multi-factor approach that considers historical action level exceedance occurrences and information on additional factors (for which information is already available through regulatory development efforts for the LCR long-term revisions or internet search engine queries). These additional factors include the number of lead service lines known to be present in a given water system; the proportion of a system's service connections that are served by lead service lines; and potential technical, managerial, and financial capacity challenges experienced by that system. Although EPA has made progress in addressing the recommendation, GAO will leave this recommendation open until SDWIS Prime is implemented.