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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
Program Assessment

Program

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Water Pollution Control Grants

EPA's Water Pollution Control Grants provide funding to States to implement their water quality programs that support Clean Water Act regulations and policies. These grants can be used for activities such as water quality monitoring, permitting, and enforcement.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Adequate

This rating describes a program that needs to set more ambitious goals, achieve better results, improve accountability or strengthen its management practices.
  • To address managment deficiencies, the program has taken steps to reduce the permit backlog, an agency weakness.
  • State implementation of permit fees would make Clean Water Act compliance more equitable for permittees, and, if structured properly, would lead to an increase in water quality activities.
  • The program is not properly targeting additional resources provided to support States' probabilistic monitoring efforts on behalf of national-level water quality determinations.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Targeting additional program funding to States implementing probabilistic monitoring activities in support of the national probabilistic monitoring survey.
  • Requiring that State workplans and performance data are formatted and reported consistently and directly support specific goals in EPA's strategic plan.
  • Providing incentives for States to implement or improve their permit fee programs, increasing the resources available for water quality programs.

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