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GAO-16-697R 1 (2016-07-14)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaakbg0001 and id is 1 raw text is: cAO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 July 14, 2016 The Honorable Bob Gibbs Chairman Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure House of Representatives Environmental Protection Agency: Status of Efforts to Address Nonpoint Source Water Pollution through the Section 319 Program Dear Mr. Chairman: Nonpoint source water pollution, unlike pollution from industrial and sewage treatment plants, comes from many diffuse sources, including runoff from farms, managed forests, and urban areas. This runoff can carry harmful pollutants, such as fertilizers and sediment from fields, toxins from abandoned mines, and oils from roads, into lakes, rivers, and other bodies of water. The Clean Water Act was passed by Congress in 1972 to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters. In 1987, Congress amended the act, adding section 319 to create a non-regulatory program through which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administers annual grants to help states develop and implement their own programs for managing nonpoint source water pollution.1 Under EPA's section 319 program, states retain the primary role for addressing nonpoint source water pollution, which they do largely through voluntary means and financial incentives. The extent of available incentives has declined in recent years, as grants to states under the section 319 program have declined by more than 30 percent from about $240 million in fiscal year 2004 to about $160 million in fiscal year 2014, according to EPA budget documents. In May 2012, we found that through the section 319 program, states had funded numerous projects that addressed varied categories of pollution (e.g., agricultural, urban, and stormwater runoff) and have helped to restore hundreds of impaired water bodies.2 For example, states funded projects to develop watershed-based plans that identify causes and remedies of nonpoint source water pollution in specific geographic zones as well as projects to implement agricultural conservation practices to lessen agricultural runoff. We also found that states funded some projects that encountered preventable challenges, which can be avoided when states use more rigorous project selection processes. For instance, projects that relied on voluntary participation sometimes did not achieve their goals when landowners' buy-in was not 1In this report, we refer to this program as the section 319 program. 2GAO, Nonpoint Source Water Pollution: Greater Oversight and Additional Data Needed for Key EPA Water Program, GAO-12-335 (Washington, D.C.: May 31, 2012). GAO-16-697R Nonpoint Source Water Pollution Page 1

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