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The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) announced in a May 10th memorandum a Project Notification titled:

EPA Enforcement of Superfund Orders and Agreements (“Memorandum”)

The Memorandum is transmitted from OIG to Susan Bodine, Assistant Administrator, EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, and Barry Breen, Acting Assistant Administrator, Office of Land and Emergency Management.

OIG states that it plans to begin preliminary research on the EPA’s enforcement of Superfund/Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”) Response Settlements and Unilateral Response Orders.

The OIG Memorandum states in part:

Holding potentially responsible parties accountable to timeframes and commitments is a part of the EPA’s key programmatic activities discussed in the fiscal years 2018-2019 Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance National Program Manager Guidance. . . The project objective is to determine whether the EPA is enforcing Potentially Responsible Parties’ compliance with EPA Superfund CERCLA Response Settlements and Unilateral Response Orders.

The work is planned to be conducted at EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance and the Office of Land and Emergency Management. It will also be undertaken in the EPA Regions.

Interviews are stated to be planned for relevant managers and staff in the Office of Site Remediation Enforcement and the Office of Compliance and others as necessary.

A copy of the Memorandum encompassing the Project Notification can be downloaded here.