Hazardous Waste Enforcement: Report of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Energy and Commerce

In a scathing report based on Congressional hearings earlier in 1982, the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation ticked off numerous issues with the agency's hazardous waste enforcement program. It noted disrupted agency reorganization, a steep drop in civil cases initiated, and a philosophy of "voluntary compliance" that was ineffective without the threat of strong enforcement to back it up. The EPA had failed to implement hazardous waste laws enacted by Congress, according to Chairman John Dingell, and as a result was failing to protect public health and the environment.