Speaking to a group in Birmingham last month, Jimmy Palmer, the new director of the Southeastern Regional office of the EPA, suggested his agency might have to step in and take over some of the responsibilities of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management if the agency did not get more money. It was welcome news, given the pitiful performance of ADEM, but seemed odd timing since the agency had been struggling with funding problems for years.
Now we know why Palmer fired a shot ADEM’s way. An audit conducted by the EPA released this week found that ADEM is weak and ineffective at inspections and is having a hard time proving that its way of enforcing pollution laws even meets standards set forth by the federal government.
The report’s findings, both good and bad, don’t surprise us.
Since this county has long had its pollution problems, we have seen firsthand the ineffectiveness of our state environmental agency. But we are also not surprised that the audit praised the dedication of the employees at ADEM.
For a long time, many in the rank and file at ADEM have worked as hard as they could with what they had to work with, which wasn’t much. Our criticism has never been leveled at the hard-working employees of the agency, but its leadership, it mandate and the Legislature’s refusal to fund ADEM.
Good employees or not, however, something has to be done at ADEM and perhaps this audit will be the beginning of some sort of positive change.
In a way Palmer’s remarks and the audit are a warning to the Legislature to hand over some more money for environmental protection. The idea is that the Legislature will not stand for EPA intervention, will not want the embarrassment that comes with being known as the only state in the nation where the EPA has taken over the state’s environmental protection duties.
We wonder, though, if that might not be the best for everyone. ADEM has preformed so poorly that a few years of EPA management might do a world of good for the agency, the environment, the health of the people and the state.
