March 14, 2019

EPA’s Environmental Enforcement Results for 2018

EPA has made available its Environmental Enforcement Results for fiscal year 2018. The results, published by the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), are available online. There you will find a summary and analysis of OECA’s accomplishments in its civil, criminal, Superfund, and other compliance programs (including federal facility compliance). New this year is an interactive “story map,” which contains EPA’s full report, including analyses and trends, a case map to search for individual enforcement actions, and more.

Of note are the significant decreases in the value of civil and criminal penalties assessed. EPA attributes these decreases to the lack of major enforcement cases settled in FY2018 compared to those in FY2017 and earlier. There was also an 11% drop in the number of federal inspections conducted by EPA, which the agency attributed to the efficiency gained via the use of improved inspection targeting and data analytics.

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This document addresses issues of a general nature related to the federal RCRA regulations. Persons evaluating specific circumstances dealing with the RCRA regulations should review state and local laws and regulations, which may be more stringent than federal requirements. In addition, the assistance of a qualified professional should be enlisted to address any site-specific circumstances.