The Nation : EPA Risks Major Scandal, Report Says

Congressional investigators have concluded that the Environmental Protection Agency is risking a major procurement scandal by letting Superfund contractors police themselves for potential conflicts of interest. The EPA enforcement is so lax, the General Accounting Office said, a Superfund contractor investigating a hazardous waste site also could be working for the polluter who dumped the chemicals there and the agency wouldn’t even know it. “This system is currently dependent on contractors’ identifying and informing appropriate EPA officials about conflicts,” the report said. It said a company working for both sides could feed the EPA biased data, thereby weakening legal efforts to recover cleanup costs from a polluter.