Clean Air Act: EPA Should Improve the Management of Its Air Toxics Program
GAO-06-669
Published: Jun 23, 2006. Publicly Released: Jul 26, 2006.
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Highlights
The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) most recent data indicate that 95 percent of all Americans face an increased likelihood of developing cancer as a result of breathing air toxics--pollutants such as benzene and asbestos that may cause cancer or other serious health problems. Sources of air toxics include large industrial facilities, smaller facilities such as dry cleaners, and cars and trucks. The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments required EPA to regulate 190 pollutants from these sources through a multifaceted regulatory program. While EPA issues federal standards, state and local agencies generally administer these standards, and some develop their own rules to complement the federal standards. In this context, GAO was asked to assess (1) EPA's progress and challenges in implementing the air toxics program, (2) available information on the program's costs and benefits, and (3) practices of state and local air toxics programs.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Environmental Protection Agency | To improve the management of EPA's air toxics program and enhance its ability to reduce risks of cancer and other adverse health effects, the EPA Administrator should require the Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation to develop an air toxics program improvement plan that provides a detailed schedule for completing its mandated air toxics activities and identifies the staffing and funding resources needed to meet the schedule and address the health risk assessment needs. |
Documentation provided by EPA on June 4, 2010 was not sufficient to close the recommendation as implemented. According to EPA, the Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) "has developed a schedule for meeting the highest priority activities and for the first time in almost a decade, OAR has shifted funds from other programs into the air program to help meet some of its statutory mandates. By utilizing the MACT program, EPA's most powerful tool to reduce emissions of air toxics, OAR wrote 96 MACT rules covering 187 pollutants from 174 categories. This level of effort continues, with 131 rules in progress: 26 of these rules will be finalized by 2013 and will address residual risk and technology improvements OAR is in the process of identifying and procuring additional resources that will allow us to create an adequate base to support a sustainable toxics program and which can support us in achieving significant reductions in toxics and other pollution that will improve public health."
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| Environmental Protection Agency | To improve the management of EPA's air toxics program and enhance its ability to reduce risks of cancer and other adverse health effects, the EPA Administrator should require the Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation to develop an air toxics program improvement plan that prioritizes activities within the air toxics program, placing the highest priority on those actions that have the greatest potential to address health risks, to the extent permitted by the Clean Air Act. |
Documentation provided by EPA on June 4, 2010 was not sufficient to close the recommendation as implemented. According to EPA, "OAR has prioritized activities based on potential to reduce air toxic emissions. OAR has already issued regulations that are achieving reductions in mobile source air toxics (MSATs) from highway vehicles as well as nonroad engines and equipment. Between 2011 and 2013, OAR will issue 26 residual risk standards addressing risk from highly toxic pollutants such as hexavalent chrome, dioxin, mercury and other metallic compounds. Emission reductions will yield important multi-pollutant benefits, since toxic pollutants take the form of both volatile and particulate releases, and reducing these releases benefits communities by also reducing their ozone and particulate matter exposure."
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| Environmental Protection Agency | To improve the management of EPA's air toxics program and enhance its ability to reduce risks of cancer and other adverse health effects, the EPA Administrator should require the Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation to develop an air toxics program improvement plan that establishes a process and timelines for meeting the act's requirements to periodically review and update the list of air toxics. |
Documentation provided by EPA on June 4, 2010 was not sufficient to close the recommendation as implemented. According to EPA, its efforts to process petitions to add and delete substances from the list of regulated hazardous air pollutants constitutes compliance with the "periodic review" requirement of section 112(b)(2) of the Clean Air Act.
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| Environmental Protection Agency | To improve the management of EPA's air toxics program and enhance its ability to reduce risks of cancer and other adverse health effects, the EPA Administrator should require the Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation to develop an air toxics program improvement plan that outlines an approach and timelines for improving the agency's ability to measure the program's costs and benefits. |
Documentation provided by EPA on June 4, 2010 was not sufficient to close the recommendation as implemented. According to EPA, "OAR has established two primary Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) measures for monitoring the progress of air toxic program efforts. The EPA is preparing a report to provide an update on the urban air toxic strategy which will consider other potential program measures."
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| Environmental Protection Agency | To improve the management of EPA's air toxics program and enhance its ability to reduce risks of cancer and other adverse health effects, the EPA Administrator should require the Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation to develop an air toxics program improvement plan that describes how the agency plans to improve its air toxics emissions inventory, including a discussion of the statutory authority for, and the merits of, requiring states and emissions sources to submit standardized emissions data. |
Documentation provided by EPA on June 4, 2010 was not sufficient to close the recommendation as implemented. According to EPA, "OAR is developing a strategy for addressing HAP that will be carried out in cooperation with other EPA Offices; other federal, state and local environmental and health agencies; and other stakeholders, to reduce exposure to HAP in our communities." In addition, EPA commented that "OAR will continue with current voluntary program and analyze the quality of the data once the 2005 (and 2008) National Air Toxics Assessment is completed in 2011 to determine if any further actions are warranted."
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Air pollutionAir pollution controlCost analysisEnvironmental monitoringEnvironmental policiesHazardous substancesHealth hazardsLocally administered programsPollutantsProgram evaluationStandardsState-administered programsToxic substancesInternal combustion enginesProgram costs