Air Pollution: EPA Should Improve Oversight of Emissions Reporting by LargeFacilities

摘要

EPA performs limited oversight of states processes for verifying the accuracy ofemissions reports submitted by major sources. In the four states included in our review, the approaches taken to verify the accuracy of the reports varied significantly. The state that performed the most detailed reviews found widespread inaccuracies. However, EPAs oversight of these processes is limited; the agency had audited only three permit authorities in the two EPA regions we visited and found that one of the three authorities had no process in place for verifying the accuracy of the emissions reports. While taking steps to improve its overall compliance-monitoring strategy, EPA does not plan to evaluate state processes for verifying emissions reports from large facilities.