Asbestos Removal and Disposal

EPA Needs to Improve Compliance With Its Regulations Gao ID: RCED-92-83 February 25, 1992

Asbestos fibers, if inhaled, can cause lung cancer and other serious respiratory illnesses. Before the health risks were recognized, materials containing asbestos were incorporated into thousands of buildings nationwide. GAO examined the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) implementation of regulations governing the removal and disposal of asbestos during renovation and demolition of public and commercial structures. This report discusses (1) EPA's monitoring of building owners' and contractors' compliance with the regulations and (2) enforcement of the regulations when violations are detected.

GAO found that: (1) EPA generally delegates day-to-day responsibility and provides technical and financial assistance for implementing the regulations if state and local agencies requesting such delegation are capable of carrying out the program; (2) EPA compliance monitoring agreements with delegated agencies vary among regions; (3) 5 of the 14 delegated agencies GAO reviewed inspected fewer renovation and demolition projects than required by their grant agreements; (4) EPA has limited resources for monitoring projects in areas for which it is still responsible and conducts fewer inspections than the delegated agencies did; (5) delegated agencies do not follow EPA recommendations for annual inspection of all contractors submitting renovation or demolition project notifications; (6) the EPA National Asbestos Registry System (NARS) database does not accurately reflect delegated agencies' notification and inspection reports; and (7) delegated agencies generally do not perform other compliance monitoring actions, citing limited resources and competing requirements. GAO also found that: (1) delegated agencies do not always fully use their authority to assess penalties, even when they detect substantial violations; (2) EPA regions are reluctant to overfile delegated agencies' assessed penalties; and (3) EPA revision of its enforcement guidance, EPA implementation of new enforcement provisions of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, and delegated agencies' actions to raise maximum penalty amounts should facilitate the assessment of more appropriate penalties that will deter violations.

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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