United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Office of the Comptroller General author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1999-01-01 monographic deposited born digital 52 p. GA 1.13:OCG-99-17 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-OCG-99-17 P0b002ee18038c1cb f:cg99017 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-OCG-99-17 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-OCG-99-17 OCG-99-17 Environmental policies Federal/state relations Accountability Management information systems Strategic planning Performance measures Risk management Pollution control Information resources management Liability (legal) Performance and Accountability Series 1999 EPA National Environmental Performance Partnership System Superfund Program EPA Toxic Release Inventory EPA Integrated Risk Information System EPA Reinventing Environmental Information Action Plan EPA Common Sense Initiative Letter Report OCG As part of its Performance and Accountability Series, GAO provided information on the major management challenges and program risks facing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).<p/>GAO noted that: (1) EPA needs more comprehensive information on the condition of the environment to effectively set priorities, assess progress in achieving its goals and objectives, and report on its accomplishments in a credible way; (2) although EPA and the states collect a considerable amount of data, the agency's data systems are often outmoded and difficult to integrate to produce comprehensive environmental information; (3) important gaps in the data also exist; (4) although the current regulatory system for environmental protection has had its successes, it has proven to be costly and, at times, inflexible; (5) noting that complex future environmental challenges will require fundamentally different regulatory approaches, EPA has initiated a variety of actions aimed at reinventing environmental regulation; (6) however, the agency faces several challenges, including helping its rank-and-file employees to understand and support changes to the current regulatory system and obtaining consensus among the agency's varied stakeholders on what these changes should be; (7) as authorized by environmental statutes, EPA has increasingly delegated responsibilities for environmental protection activities to the states; (8) the states have become important EPA partners as they have assumed the responsibility for implementing most national environmental programs on a daily basis; (9) despite the importance of this partnership, the relationship has often been characterized by fundamental disagreements over roles, priorities, and the extent of federal oversight that potentially limit the effectiveness of these programs; (10) EPA has improved its management of the Superfund program--the agency's $1.5-billion effort to clean up the nation's most hazardous waste sites--since GAO's 1992 designation of the program as being at high risk of fraud, waste and abuse; (11) actions are still needed to: (a) ensure that limited resources are used to clean up sites that pose the greatest risk; (b) recover billions of dollars in cleanup costs from those responsible for the contamination; and (c) control site cleanup costs through the efficient and effective administration of cleanup contracts; (12) EPA is aware of the importance of meeting these management challenges and has various initiatives under way to address them; (13) EPA is also developing a strategic action plan to improve the quality of the data in its major information systems and a strategy to identify and fill significant gaps in the available environmental data; and (14) although EPA is making progress in addressing its management challenges, they have been long-standing, and overcoming them will require the agency's long-term commitment and, in some cases, additional resources. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-OCG-99-17/html/GAOREPORTS-OCG-99-17.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-OCG-99-17/pdf/GAOREPORTS-OCG-99-17.pdf GAO/OCG-99-17 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-OCG-99-17 Letter Report GAO/OCG-99-17; Major Management Challenges and Program Risks: Environmental Protection Agency; Environmental policies Federal/state relations Accountability Management information systems Strategic planning Performance measures Risk management Pollution control Information resources management Liability (legal) Performance and Accountability Series 1999 EPA National Environmental Performance Partnership System Superfund Program EPA Toxic Release Inventory EPA Integrated Risk Information System EPA Reinventing Environmental Information Action Plan EPA Common Sense Initiative S. Rept. 105-216