Environmental Protection Agency OIG

We rendered an unmodified opinion on the EPA's consolidated financial statements for fiscal years 2024 and 2023 (restated), meaning that they were fairly presented and free of material misstatement. However, we noted three material weaknesses and one significant deficiency. The most concerning...

The passive assessment covered 1,062 drinking water systems for cybersecurity vulnerabilities that serve over 193 million people across the United States. Scan results for October 8, 2024, identified 97 drinking water systems serving approximately 26.6 million users as having either critical or high...

Some states are collecting and storing their CWSRF and DWSRF subrecipient and contractor data in unstructured or nonmachine-readable formats. Data that are not collected or stored in a structured database or machine-readable format can be difficult to access and can significantly inhibit the ability...

The design and execution of the 7th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment did not result in allotments of lead service line, or LSL, funds that accurately reflected the LSL replacement needs in each state. The EPA used the responses to the survey's supplemental LSL questionnaire...

In fiscal year 2023, the CSB complied with improper payment requirements pursuant to the PIIA. The CSB's combined outlays for all programs totaled $8.988 million. CSB management decided to perform an improper payment risk assessment for fiscal year 2023 even though it was not required to do so, as...

Most of the 47 states that charged fees to CWSRF loan recipients did not provide some required fee information in either their intended use plan or annual report for 2022. This may have occurred because the Office of Water's guidance was not clear with respect to the definitions of the required...

We determined that the EPA awarded WIIN Act funds consistent with nearly all guidance and improved Agency processes to increase the transparency of funding decisions. We identified two documentation issues that the EPA experienced before it awarded funds. Agency staff reported to us that they had...

We found that the EPA's Brownfields Projects Program, a subset of the overall Brownfields Program, met the Executive Office of the President's Justice40 Initiative reporting requirements for fiscal year 2022 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act-funded projects. The program is also projected to...

The OIG received hotline complaints from five EPA scientists who raised multiple allegations of misconduct, including that the Agency took retaliatory actions from 2019 through 2022 after each scientist expressed differing scientific opinions and after they filed hotline complaints with the EPA OIG...

The OIG received hotline complaints from five EPA scientists who raised multiple allegations of misconduct, including that the Agency took retaliatory actions from 2019 through 2022 after each scientist expressed differing scientific opinions and after they filed hotline complaints with the EPA OIG...