EPA's waste and enforcement offices are "strongly" disagreeing with the agency's Inspector General (IG) over its just-released findings that deficiencies in their oversight of financial assurance instruments to cover environmental liabilities at waste cleanup sites pose environmental and significant financial risks to the agency and should be deemed an EPA "material weakness." The IG March 31 released a "management alert" evaluating financial assurance mechanisms in place to cover environmental liabilities at Superfund and Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) sites, saying the matter is a time-critical issue it believes should be immediately addressed. In the alert, the IG says the agency's "data deficiencies, coupled with a lack of controls over billions of dollars in financial assurance instruments, significantly impair and threaten the management of the EPA's RCRA and Superfund programs."
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