Why We Did This Report
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General conducted this evaluation to determine whether the upgrade to the Superfund Enterprise Management System is likely to facilitate improved documentation of institutional controls in the “Institutional Controls” module.
Summary of Findings
Because of system limitations and insufficient guidance, the information in the classic SEMS “Institutional Controls” module is not complete and available for reporting, monitoring, and other oversight activities. The upgrade to SEMS 2.0 is unlikely to improve this condition. Specifically, classic SEMS and SEMS 2.0 do not track institutional controls as independent elements of a site remedy, and they do not allow users to track planned institutional controls. In addition to these system design limitations, at the time of our fieldwork, the Office of Land and Emergency Management had not mandated that the regions use the “Institutional Controls” module, nor had it issued guidance regarding the purpose and use of the module. Consequently, the regions do not use the “Institutional Controls” module consistently, so the data do not completely or accurately reflect actual site conditions.
