Air Pollution

Difficulties in Implementing a National Air Permit Program Gao ID: RCED-93-59 February 23, 1993

Factories, refineries, and other industrial facilities spew out thousands of tons of pollutants each year. Industry is required to obtain operating permits and pay the costs incurred by state air pollution control agencies in approving and administering these permits. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was supposed to issue a permit rule by November 1991 that would govern state permit programs, but disagreement among EPA and other government agencies delayed issuance of the final rule for eight months. This report discusses (1) efforts by EPA and states to start up effective operating permit programs and (2) the adequacy of resources budgeted by EPA to management the permit program and the sufficiency of permit fees assessed by state agencies to cover the costs of their programs.

GAO found that: (1) the 8-month delay in issuing the final EPA permit rule has resulted in delays in program implementation, EPA guidance and state assistance, setting of permit fees, development of a federal permit program model, and assessments of whether state permit program fees would cover program costs; (2) delays in issuing the final permit rule have limited state capability to implement the program; (3) further delays in program implementation were due to controversy over final permit rule provision requirement inconsistencies; (4) EPA allocation of 60 staff years indicated that it may have understated its needs and raised concerns regarding its ability to manage and oversee the permit program; (5) EPA has not sufficiently planned for the resources needed to implement and oversee the program; (6) states have recognized that the costs to implement and manage their programs will be significant, but some states have made little progress in identifying or quantifying costs for permit fees; and (7) political and economic pressures to keep fees low may prevent state and local agencies from recovering the full program costs through fees.

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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