INDReporter

EPA decries La.'s lax enforcement

by Walter Pierce

A DEQ spokesman, understandably, takes issue with the report.

A new report by the Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general characterizes Louisiana as one of the worst states at enforcing environmental laws and, the report concludes, the EPA should either force the state to do a better job of policing air, water and hazardous waste laws or step in itself to conduct the enforcement.

The report, according to an account in The Times-Picayune, focuses on an endemic failure by the state's Department of Environmental Quality to carry out inspections and to cite violators, concluding that there may be "a culture in which the state agency is expected to protect industry" for DEQ's lax oversight and enforcement.

A DEQ spokesman, understandably, takes issue with the report.

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