EPA Office of Inspector General issues results of biosolids audit

In March 2001, the National Whistleblower Center (NWC) - a nonprofit organization that aids whistleblowers in exposing wrongdoing by government and industry officials and advocates specific corrective actions submitted a series of allegations to the U.S. EPA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) concerning EPA's "conduct in regard to regulating the dumping of waste products generated by sewage treatment plants...." The allegations by the center were based largely on issues raised by David Lewis, an EPA research scientist. The allegations included well contamination, illness, or death in which exposure to sludge was identified as a possible cause. The Center contended that EPA failed to investigate any of these cases. The OIG agreed to conduct an audit of EPA to investigate the allegations. In a previous OIG audit on biosolids, issued in March 2000, OIG found inadequacies in EPA's management and enforcement of the biosolids program. The current status report, "Land Application of Biosolids," was released in March 2002, and provides the results of the audit.

The complete report can be accessed on the Internet (http://biosolids.policy. net/relatives/23201.pdf). Some of the findings - in response to the allegations - include: EPA continues to place a low priority on the biosolids program, and staff assigned to it has been declining, e.g. 18 full-time employees at the regional level in 1998 versus ten in 2000; The OIG found that of the 21 complaints that NWC contended EPA had not investigated, 14 actually were investigated by EPA and/or a state, five were not reported to them and two were not biosolids related. However, EPA does not have a formal complaint tracking process; EPA does not plan to complete a comprehensive evaluation and monitoring study to address risk assessment uncertainties and pathogen issues regarding the safety of land application of biosolids (areas that have contributed to the controversy surrounding biosolids). The OIG found indications that more research on pathogen testing is needed; The NWC expressed concern about EPA's support of the Water Environment Federation (specifically $12.9 million provided over a three-year period). The OIG found that of the $12.9 million given to WEF and the Water Environment Research Foundation, $12.4 million had been Congressionally mandated and EPA had no discretion in awarding those funds.