A March 5 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Inspector General's report revealed that EPA consistently misstated information on the quality of the nations drinking water over the years 1999 to 2002. EPA claimed in several documents during that time that that 91 percent of citizens had access to safe drinking water. According to other EPA documents reviewed by the Inspector General and interviews with state officials, however, only about 81 percent of the country had access to safe drinking water in 2002 much less than the published 94 percent estimate for that year.

Ironically, just months after the business-friendly Bush administration squelched the climate change section of the Environmental Protection Agency’s report on the environment, the world’s second largest insurer released a report revealing how climate change is rising on the corporate agenda.

EPA has prevented regional offices from speaking to congressional staff about perchlorate contamination. Perchlorate is found in rocket fuel and has contaminated drinking water near Department of Defense (DoD) sites in at least 22 states.

OMB Watch encourages interested individuals to take part in the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Stakeholder Dialogue Phase II that focuses on burden reduction options for the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program. The TRI is a flagship database that contains information about releases and transfers of toxic chemicals from manufacturing facilities. Since the establishment of TRI, the simple act of publicizing the amount toxic chemicals that facilities release has pressured companies to reduce these releases by more than half.