Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Annual Results for FY 2024: Compliance Assurance

A strong compliance assurance program is critical to fulfilling EPA’s mission of protecting human health and the environment. Delivering a robust compliance assurance program is achieved by helping companies understand their obligations under U.S. environmental laws, by strengthening our inspector program to promote a level-playing field, and by revitalizing our training program through the National Enforcement Training Institute (NETI) to keep up with 21st century environmental challenges, such as cybersecurity threats, climate change, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination.

Focusing EPA’s compliance assurance resources where most needed, including in overburdened and underserved communities, and ensuring that people have information to understand the environmental conditions of their neighborhood, are priorities for the agency. In fiscal year 2024, the compliance assurance program continued to develop cutting-edge information technology to meet those goals, and to promote access to data and analytic tools. We made meaningful strides toward modernizing our information technology systems to meet current and future needs and beginning efficiency improvements to reduce burden on industry, state, and tribal partners and conserve agency resources.

The compliance assurance program also oversees state authorized programs through the State Review Framework, working with delegated programs to ensure consistent enforcement of the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Additionally, to address noncompliance efficiently, the compliance assurance program provides incentives to regulated entities to voluntarily discover, disclose, and correct environmental problems.

Assisting the Regulated Community to Ensure Compliance

The compliance assurance program helps regulated entities achieve and remain in compliance, especially those operating in communities overburdened by pollution.

Compliance Advisors for Sustainable Water Systems

Compliance advisors are a multi-disciplinary team who provide customized technical assistance at no cost to small drinking water and wastewater utilities to help achieve and maintain compliance. They specialize in working with EPA regional offices and state and local governments to help small communities, including overburdened communities.

Advisors have technical expertise and a proven process (shown in graphic, below) to evaluate compliance issues, plan for improvements, and help small systems return to and maintain compliance.

In FY 2024, Compliance Advisors assisted and trained 128 drinking water systems and 56 wastewater treatment facilities, 72% of which were in historically overburdened communities. Advisors have now supported 362 systems in total – 81 wastewater systems and 281 drinking water systems. Read EPA’s Fact Sheet: EPA’s Compliance Advisors for Sustainable Water Systems Program

Compliance Advisories, Enforcement Alerts, and Compliance Assistance Centers

EPA uses a variety of methods to engage stakeholders, which includes compliance assistance to regulated entities and stakeholders through Compliance Advisories and Enforcement Alerts that explain EPA’s regulatory requirements and remind regulated entities of their obligations. In FY 2024, EPA’s enforcement and compliance assurance programs issued six advisory or alert documents addressing issues such as illegal imports of hydrofluorocarbons, importers not certifying plumbing products as “lead free,” methane releases from landfills, noncompliance with coal ash disposal, and more. The complete list of FY 2024 compliance advisories and enforcement alerts are available on EPA’s website.

EPA also provided assistance through 17 sector-specific, web-based Compliance Assistance Centers that help businesses, local governments, and federal facilities understand their regulatory obligations. The centers also link to state-specific resources and offer one-on-one technical assistance to help organizations address environmental compliance issues. As of September 2024, the centers have supported approximately one million user sessions this year.

Strengthening Our Inspector Program to Monitor Compliance and Promote a Level Playing Field

Inspections, announced and unannounced, are critical to uncovering noncompliance with environmental laws and establishing a visible presence and level playing field among regulated entities that operate in and potentially impact communities overburdened by pollution. Through its strategic plan, EPA set a FY 2024 goal to increase the number of inspections in overburdened and underserved communities to 50% of the total number of inspections. In FY 2024, the agency met its goal, performing over 8,500 inspections, with over 4,500, or 53%, in such communities. 

EPA made substantial progress in bolstering its inspector corps to meet the agency’s strategic goals. In FY 2024, we increased the number of inspectors by nearly 17% over FY 2023.  In addition to training newly hired inspectors, EPA focused on the need for continued education for all inspectors - providing training to refresh and develop new skills to keep up with emerging issues, such as cybersecurity for public water systems. We expanded the availability of in-person training and piloted new programs for providing on the job training. We developed an Inspector Community of Practice as a forum for inspectors from across the agency to stay up to date and learn from each other regarding new regulations and procedures, current events, trainings, issues, ideas, and best practices.

The compliance assurance program continued to expand our Smart Tools application, an electronic inspection software, used by EPA and the states to increase the efficiency of compliance monitoring activities in the field. Smart Tools is now used with:

• Resource Conservation and Recovery Act hazardous waste and underground storage tank inspections,
• Clean Water Act National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System inspections, and
• Federal Insecticide Fungicide Rodenticide Act and Good Laboratory Practice data audits and inspections.

EPA continues to develop new Smart Tools applications for the Toxic Substances Control Act Lead-based Paint program, the Clean Air Act’s section 112(r) Accidental Release Prevention/Risk Management Plan program, and the Safe Drinking Water Act Public Water System Supervision program, which we aim to complete in FY 2025.

Protecting Community Water Systems and National Security from Cyber-Attacks

In FY 2024, the compliance assurance program increased its focus on protecting community water systems and U.S. national security from cyber-attacks. Working with EPA’s Office of Water, the agency developed and delivered a cybersecurity inspection training for EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) inspectors. We also developed a suite of objective tools to assist inspectors including an inspection report template, checklists to use during cybersecurity inspections, and factsheets to give to water systems in advance of inspections.

Equipped with new skills and tools, inspectors were able to increase the number of inspections at community water systems that focus on cybersecurity. Where vulnerabilities are identified and may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health, enforcement actions may be appropriate under SDWA section 1431 to mitigate those risks.

To learn more about EPA’s work on ensuring resilience against attaches, read EPA Increases Enforcement Activities to Ensure Drinking Water Systems Address Cybersecurity Threats compliance advisory.

Training Today for a Better Tomorrow

EPA continues to invest in and grow our training program through the revitalization of the National Enforcement Training Institute. In FY 2024, the enforcement and compliance assurance program provided 733 trainings to over 21,000 EPA staff and external professionals.

These events strengthen both EPA’s and external partners’ workforce, providing information and building capacity as they work to protect communities and advance environmental protection. In FY 2024 we provided trainings on topics such as community engagement, witness preparation and trial advocacy, climate change, and PFAS.

Supporting States, Tribes, Industry, and the Public Through Access to Data

The compliance assurance program manages EPA’s Integrated Compliance Information System or ICIS, the agency’s principal compliance and enforcement data system. Using the data collected through this system, we develop tools to better use our inspection resources where there is most likely to be noncompliance, often in overburdened and underserved communities, conserving agency, state and tribal, and industry resources by focusing work in the areas most likely to result in harm to human health and the environment.

EPA's Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) website also provides industry and the public information on when EPA, state, or Tribal inspections happen in their communities, whether noncompliance has been reported, and what enforcement action has been taken. In 2024, ECHO use increased by 40% to 5.4 million page views. ECHO has built in tools, such as the Water Quality Indicators Tool and PFAS Analytic Tools, that allow users to access data in user-friendly, searchable platforms. ECHO includes features popular with states and Tribes, companies, and investors that make it easy for them to monitor compliance across facilities.

In 2024, EPA made significant efficiency improvements in its systems, through conversion of paper to electronic reporting, greatly reducing the reporting burden on industry and conserving agency resources. Additional process improvements are planned for FY 2025 to make efficient use of government resources.

Integrated Compliance Information System Modernization

EPA’s principal compliance and enforcement data system, the Integrated Compliance Information System or ICIS, allows the agency, states, and Tribes to gather, assess, and disseminate compliance assurance data for the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act programs, as well as enforcement data associated with all EPA regulatory programs.

Parts of ICIS are approaching the end of their lifecycle and as such are costly to maintain. In FY 2024, the enforcement and compliance assurance program, at the request of state and Tribal partners, began working with state and Tribal representatives and other EPA offices on “ICIS Modernization” a project to improve data collection efficiency, completeness, and accuracy.

To ensure the new system meets the needs of all users, EPA is engaging with a broad stakeholder group in all aspects of its development. In 2024, we established five focus areas, most co-chaired by an EPA and a state representative to guide our efforts:

• Air,
• Communications,
• Data Architecture and Integration,
• Federal Enforcement and Compliance, and
• National Pollutant and Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).

Over the next year, the five workgroups will identify current and future program needs and priorities.

Water Quality Indicators Tool

In FY 2024, the compliance assurance program released the Water Quality Indicators (WQI) Tool, the first EPA interface that allows users to compare millions of data records from water monitoring stations. Facilitated by a mapping tool, the WQI Tool makes it easy to explore nutrient and pathogen data and identify the potential sources that are contributing to water quality problems. The tool allows users to see pollutant level trends from nearby monitoring stations and compare to other stations across the country. The WQI Tool is integrated with other ECHO features showing compliance of nearby dischargers.

For more information, visit EPA’s Water Quality Indicators webpage.

Methane Super Emitters Program

The Methane Super Emitters Program tackles methane, a climate super pollutant over 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide, using a system of certified third-party notifiers to identify large emissions leaks, or super-emitter events, from the oil and gas industry.

This program standardizes the collection of data so industry can immediately be notified of production problems that are resulting in product loss and possible environmental damage. Methane plumes often co-occur with other volatile organic compound releases than can be harmful to nearby communities. Owners/operators of applicable facilities who receive notifications from EPA investigate and report the results to EPA. The notifications and the owner/operator responses will be posted in the Methane Data Explorer. These notifications are valuable tools that EPA provides industry to improve the efficiency of its operations.

PFAS Analytic Tool

In FY 2024, the compliance assurance program made significant enhancements to the PFAS Analytic Tool in ECHO. Using a searchable, map-themed webpage, this tool brings together national datasets containing PFAS information that allows users to filter, zoom in, and download national data on PFAS environmental testing and releases. The tool is used extensively by states to identify potential causes of PFAS detections.

Since its release in January 2023, EPA has added new drinking water testing data from the fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule. The PFAS Analytical Tool has been widely used by researchers in understanding where PFAS detections occur or may be found in the future. More information on this tool is available on the ECHO PFAS Analytic Tools webpage.

Ensuring Consistency in Compliance Assurance Programs

The State Review Framework (SRF) consistently assesses EPA and state enforcement of the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. EPA works in partnership with each state to create a final SRF report, which provides recommendations to ensure consistent implementation across the states. Wherever program performance is found to deviate significantly from federal policy or standards, EPA issues recommendations for corrective action which are monitored by EPA and the state until completed, and program performance improves. In FY 2024, the SRF program finalized guidance for Round 5 and conducted reviews in seven states.

In addition to the SRF, the compliance assurance program has developed the Drinking Water Enforcement Review process to provide nationally consistent compliance assessments under the Safe Drinking Water Act. In FY 2024 we developed guidance and tools for regional implementation, provided training to every EPA Region, and EPA regional offices conducted reviews of eight state drinking water programs as part of the Increasing Compliance with Drinking Water Standards National Enforcement and Compliance Initiative.

Encouraging Voluntary Disclosures

To address noncompliance efficiently, using all available tools, EPA encourages regulated entities, including new owners, to voluntarily discover, promptly disclose, expeditiously correct, and take steps to prevent recurrence of environmental problems.

Since 1995, over 12,000 entities at over 30,000 facilities have disclosed potential violations under the agency’s Compliance Incentives. The eDisclosure system provides a centralized web-based portal to receive and automatically process self-disclosed civil environmental violations. In FY 2024 we received 527 voluntary self-disclosures and/or new owner audit agreements covering 540 facilities.