EPA audit scolds DEP for "significant shortcomings"

by: Jason Springer

Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 04:30:00 PM EDT

The DEP is under fire from the results of a routine audit by the EPA.

A federal audit of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection identified what it called "significant shortcomings" in how the DEP operates, especially in the division that handles contaminated site cleanups.
The DEP's site remediation program doesn't provide proper oversight of contaminated site cleanups because program officers don't follow up with field audits or internal assessments, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency report, released Thursday.
The EPA faulted the DEP officials for failing to verify what the private contractors of polluters told them about site cleanups. The DEP officials even told the EPA during interviews that the contractors were "certified professionals and taken at their word," the report said.

You can view the full report from the EPA here. That wasn't all they were critical of:

In the report, the EPA also criticized the DEP because several programs, including site remediation and the wetlands program, operate outside the department's quality assurance system. The audit noted that many site remediation staff and managers didn't even know that the DEP has an Office of Quality Assurance.

While the report was critical of short comings, it wasn't all negative:

Some positive highlights were noted during EPA's closing meeting with Department's senior managers. Among the highlights were that the Office of Quality Assurance's Laboratory Certification Program has improved the frequency of laboratory audits since our last assessment of the program in 2005. Also, the Bureau of Surface Water Permitting, the Bureau of Technical Services, and the Bureau of Environmental Radiation were found to be in compliance with the NJDEP Quality Management Plan and have functioning quality systems.

Environmental groups took the report as confirmation of many of the points they have been making. It's an odd situation to have, but such is the case with the latest EPA audit:

A 2005 EPA audit identified many areas for DEP improvement, which the DEP responded to in 2006 with a list of corrective actions it would take. This new audit notes that "many of the corrective actions identified ... were never completed" by the DEP.
Those corrective actions had been outlined in a plan issued by then-DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson, who took over the EPA earlier this year. The audit and its critique of DEP performance provide an awkward instance of the agency Jackson used to run coming under criticism by the agency she heads now.

The DEP said they would need time to review the whole report before commenting. It's only 32 pages. The Governor touted many of his administrations efforts recently on Blue Jersey radio, but this report says there is much more that needs to be done.

One response to the backlog of contaminated sites has been the recent creation of the Licensed Site Remediation Program to "help streamline the process", but some including environmental groups have been very critical of that effort and have raised concerns. It's clear by the backlog of contaminated sites that the DEP didn't have the resources to handle the problem even before cuts over the last few years, the question has always been what to do about it?

Jason Springer :: EPA audit scolds DEP for "significant shortcomings"

Tags: licensed site remediation program, lsrp, environmental, environment, Lisa Jackson, Jon Corzine, DEP, EPA, (All Tags)

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EPA audit scolds DEP for "significant shortcomings" | 2 comments

The EPA Audit was leaked (0.00 / 0)

Jason - an important point is overlooked in press accounts.

That EPA audit was leaked - neitehr EPA nor DEP had an intention of publicly releasing it. THen issue scores of press releases that onyl report the good news.

I had the audit 15 minutes after the EPA meeting with DEP mangers ended.

WE all can thank conscientious DEP employees for that - and should work for stronger whistleblower laws so we can get more truth out of DEP and EPA. Believe me, we know very little of what goes on there.

by: Winston Smith @ Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 23:43:55 PM UTC

The story (0.00 / 0)

makes it look like the report was just released. That's an interesting point being overlooked in the reporting. I made sure to link to your reference of response that you posted very early on.

Besides blowing the whistle, what proactive actions do you think can be taken to fix the problem? What do you think of the LSRP solution that was passed? It just doesn't seem like they are going to get the resources to fix the problem that exists because they aren't there.

Christie wants to get rid of the DEP and you're obviously not happy with what Corzine hasn't done. So whoever wins the election, what would you like to see done?

by: Jason Springer @ Tue Sep 01, 2009 at 03:53:08 AM UTC

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