12-Year Report Shows Downward Trend in EPA Enforcement
Between 2007 and 2018, every major measure of the EPA’s enforcement and compliance activities declined, states the Agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) in a report.
Tag: OIG
Report Details EPA’s Aggressive Implementation of Deregulatory Agenda
Among the actions President Donald Trump has taken to reform the issuance of federal regulations, none exceed Executive Order (EO) 13771, Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs (January 30, 2017) in originality. That action stipulated that for every new regulation, the issuing federal agency must identify at least two prior regulations for repeal, replacement, or […]
Whoops! OIG Says OSHA Lacked Proper Procedures for Some Guidance Documents
Between 2013 and 2016, OSHA issued guidance documents without considering whether a formal rulemaking was required under federal law, according to a recent report from the Labor Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG).
EPA Inspectors Find TRI Data Errors for Publicly Owned Treatment Works
According to a rare Management Alert from the EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), information reported to the Agency on chemicals released to the environment by publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) conflicted with information the OIG obtained separately from the Agency.
EPA Urged by OIG to Assess Unregulated Pollutants in Biosolids
Following a 14-month performance audit of the EPA’s biosolids program, the EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) found what it believes to be significant gaps in the Agency’s implementation of its statutory obligation to protect human health and the environment. The major weakness identified by the OIG relates to the EPA’s regulation of pollutants in […]
Emergency Exemptions Under FIFRA
In a 2018 report, the EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said it found flaws in how the Agency’s Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) managed the pesticide emergency exemption process authorized by Section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Specifically, the OIG said the OPP does not use emergency exemption data […]
OIG to OSHA: Improve Collection of Injury Data
In its November 2018 report on top management challenges for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the DOL’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) states that OSHA needs to complete initiatives to improve employer reporting of severe injuries and illnesses.
Fatalities and Injuries Are Underreported, Says OIG
Despite a 2014 OSHA rule that strengthened provisions that require employers to inform OSHA about work-related fatalities and serious injuries and illnesses, the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that OSHA’s data on these incidents are deficient as is its assurance that employers abated the hazards that contributed to the incidents.
EPA Implicated by OIG in Flint Water Crisis
The drinking water crisis that began in Flint, Michigan, in 2014 may go down in U.S. environmental history as the classic failure of all levels of government—local, state, and federal—to meet their responsibilities to provide the public with safe drinking water as required by the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and the federal Lead and […]
After VW, EPA Ramps Up Its Vehicle Testing Program
Volkswagen’s (VW) successful efforts to cheat the EPA’s emissions testing of light-duty vehicles with defeat devices became major public news in 2014 and continues to have repercussions today for those offices within the Agency that conduct vehicle testing and oversee compliance.