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GAO-21-557PR 1 (2021-06-29)

handle is hein.gao/gaolwt0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 1O o U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE G A O A Century of Non-Partisan Fact-Based Work 441 G St. N.W. Comptroller General Washington, DC 20548 of the United States June 29, 2021 The Honorable Michael S. Regan Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20460 Priority Open Recommendations: Environmental Protection Agency Dear Administrator Regan: I appreciated our recent meeting and look forward to a constructive working relationship between our two institutions. As we discussed, the purpose of this letter is to provide an update on the overall status of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) implementation of GAO's recommendations and to call attention to areas where open recommendations should be given high priority.1 In November 2020, we reported that on a government-wide basis, 77 percent of our recommendations made 4 years ago were implemented.2 EPA's implementation rate for recommendations we made in 2016 is 62 percent. As of May 2021, EPA had 101 open recommendations. Fully implementing these open recommendations could significantly improve agency operations. Since our April 2020 letter on the status of priority recommendations, EPA implemented six of our 21 open priority recommendations by taking the following actions: EPA revised its water quality measures that identify the overall health of certain water bodies to capture a wider range of water quality improvements. EPA also collected data on state projects that protect high-quality or unimpaired water bodies. Having done so, EPA can better measure the health of certain water bodies and understand states' ability to protect high-quality water bodies. EPA took actions to better track and promote water utilities' implementation of asset management. For example, EPA began requiring states to add asset management to their capacity development strategies and included questions in surveys to encourage states to assess their assets. These actions enable EPA to better understand water utilities' implementation of asset management. In its proposed revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule, EPA included a provision for water systems to assist with testing for lead in drinking water at schools and child care 1Priority recommendations are those that GAO believes warrant priority attention from heads of key departments or agencies. They are highlighted because, upon implementation, they may significantly improve government operations, for example, by realizing large dollar savings; eliminating mismanagement, fraud, and abuse; or making progress toward addressing a high-risk or duplication issue. 2GAO, Performance and Accountability Report: Fiscal Year 2020, GAO-21-4SP (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 16, 2020). GAO-21-557PR EPA Priority Recommendations Page 1

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