U.S. EPA regulators have failed to oversee a grant program that has dispensed $31M over the last 20 years to improve the health of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin, even as the program prepares to steeply increase its spending, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found in a new report.
The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Restoration Program since 2000 has been dispensing small federal grants that aim to reduce pollution and saltwater intrusion in the basin’s waterways and slow land loss from subsidence and erosion.
The grants are dispensed by the University of New Orleans Research and Technology Program and overseen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
GAO found numerous lapses in the EPA’s oversight: Never properly identifying the basin’s boundaries; not determining whether grants met program goals or establishing performance measures to ensure they did; and failing to ensure the public understood how to apply for grants.
GAO also noted the grants selected for funding were based on an outdated 1996 conservation and restoration plan. That plan predated dramatic improvements in Lake Pontchartrain’s water quality when a 1989 ban on dredging of the lake bottom and other measures to reduce pollution from runoff and sewage was enacted.
The report also pointed out that the program was supposed to be overseen by a large and diverse board. As of February, there were only six members of the executive committee, all representing New Orleans-area organizations.
The federal findings come as the program is receiving a major increase in funding. (NOLA.com 05/30/23) EPA failed to oversee Lake Pontchartrain grant program: GAO | Environment | nola.com
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