Surface Mining

In response to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the performance of Kentucky, Indiana, and Colorado in assessing and collecting civil penalties against coal mining operators who violated environmental standards.

GAO found that: (1) of 201 violations it randomly selected for the period January through June 1985, the states determined that 18 violations never actually occurred; (2) of the remaining 183 violations, the states assessed a monetary penalty on 40 percent, used their discretionary authority to waive the penalty on 50 percent, and made no penalty determination on 10 percent; (3) of the violations with assessed values of less than $1,100, Indiana and Kentucky waived 88 and 63 percent, respectively, while Colorado did not waive penalties of any amount; (4) the states were lenient in considering violators' demonstrated good faith in abating the cited violation and prior violation histories; and (5) Kentucky did not always impose the mandatory penalty for each violation and improperly reduced or eliminated penalties during negotiations and hearings prior to issuing final orders. GAO also found that: (1) as of June 30, 1986, the states had not collected about $84.8 million of the $89.8 million in penalties they assessed; (2) Colorado collected 55 percent of assessed penalties, Indiana collected 7 percent, and Kentucky collected 5 percent; (3) none of the states have penalty collection systems that are consistent with established Internal Revenue Service (IRS) debt collection procedures; (4) Colorado lacks a system to track unpaid penalties; (5) Indiana initiates its collection effort promptly, but fails to take additional action if the violator fails to pay the penalty; and (6) Kentucky does not always initiate prompt action.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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