Compliance & Enforcement at Federal Facilities

Federal facilities, like all other regulated facilities, are responsible for complying with environmental requirements.  EPA monitors compliance by federal facilities to ensure they obey environmental laws and regulations through on-site inspections and reviewing information that EPA, states and tribes require to be submitted.

Online Compliance Information
It is incumbent on federal facilities to know the compliance status of their facilities, especially since the general public—including citizens living near or adjacent to federal facilities—can get this information.  EPA gives the general public online access to compliance and enforcement information on approximately 800,000 facilities—including thousands of federal facilities—through EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online page.  

Federal employees can access detailed compliance and enforcement histories on thousands of federal facilities online through Online Compliance Tracking System (OTIS).  Federal employees can use OTIS to check the compliance status of specific facilities, track facilities by agency, and compare their facilities against other agency facilities or agencies.  Federal environmental compliance officers and auditors can use OTIS to plan future compliance work and audits.  Federal employees can access OTIS after registering as a user.

State of Federal Facilities
EPA issues periodic reports on compliance by federal agencies with environmental requirements.  They include detailed analyses on trends in compliance across federal agencies.  Agencies can use these reports to ensure they focus their resources and management attention on important areas.

Top of page

Inspections
EPA and its regulatory partners (e.g., states and tribes) conduct inspections under the majority of statutory and regulatory programs.

Inspections are visits to a facility or site (e.g., a military base, a federal laboratory or a national park) for the purpose of gathering information to determine whether it is in compliance with environmental laws and regulations. Inspections generally include pre-inspection activities such as obtaining general site information before entering the facility or site. Other activities that may be conducted during the on-site visit include:

• Interviewing facility or site representatives
• Reviewing records and reports
• Taking photographs
• Collecting samples
• Observing facility or site operations

Inspections can be conducted on a single-media program such as the Clean Water Act, or can be conducted for more than one media program. Inspections also can be conducted to address a specific environmental problem (e.g., water quality in a river), a facility or industry sector (e.g., chemical plants), or a geographic (e.g., a region or locality) or an ecosystem (e.g., air or watershed). Inspections are commonly conducted by EPA and state employees. However, properly trained and authorized contract inspectors (PDF) (160K, 3 pp, about PDF) can also conduct inspections.

As required by Executive Order 13148, federal agencies should have environmental management systems at appropriate facilities. EPA policy (PDF) (207K, 6 pp, about PDF) encourages EPA inspectors to give EMS assistance to federal agencies during inspections.

For general information on EPA's compliance monitoring and inspection programs go to the Inspections and Evaluations page.

For more information on monitoring activities of various federal agencies go to FedCenter, an interagency environmental compliance and assistance web site.

Top of page