The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week released the agency's Performance and Accountability Report for Fiscal Year 2005 summarizing the environmental and fiscal performance results it achieved during the last year.

The report measures EPA’s performance against five major agency goals relating to Clean Air and Global Climate Change, Clean and Safe Water, Land Preservation and Restoration, Healthy Communities and Ecosystems and Compliance and Environmental Stewardship.

Among the report's highlights:

· EPA announced new clean air rules for mercury and interstate air pollution that are expected to dramatically reduce emissions of pollutants from power plants;

· EPA launched a "Clean Diesel Campaign" to reduce emissions from new and existing diesel engines. The campaign includes regulatory and voluntary efforts to reduce emissions of particulate matter and ozone;

· EPA and state partners attained water quality standards in an additional eight percent of waters previously identified as impaired;

· EPA completed cleanup of 40 sites on the Superfund National Priorities List for a cumulative total of 966 sites cleaned up, more than 64 percent of the sites on the NPL;

· In FY 2005, EPA announced $76.7 million in brownfields grant funding to recipients in 45 states. Since the beginning of the program, brownfields grantees have assessed 7,752 properties and attracted $7.2 billion in cleanup and redevelopment funding, creating 33,599 jobs; and

· EPA reduced, treated, or eliminated more than 1.1 billion pounds of pollutants as a result of agency enforcement actions.

A copy of the Performance and Accountability Report is available online.

11/18/2005