Message to EPA Employees: Reaffirming EPA's Elevation Policy (December 28, 2022)

Dear Colleagues,

As EPA employees, we’re all part of a team that’s charged with protecting human health and the environment and I’m incredibly proud to lead and serve alongside all of you as we carry out EPA’s important mission.

Part of EPA’s mission is ensuring that our agency identifies and appropriately addresses human health and environmental risks, and today, I’m proud to reaffirm our commitment to elevating these risks so that we can assess and respond to them in a timely and effective manner.

Threats to a community’s public health—whether from air pollution, unsafe drinking water, toxic chemicals, or hazardous waste sites—can happen anywhere and too often these threats occur in communities of color and low-income communities. EPA continues to partner with state, Tribal and local leaders, and work directly with community members to identify and address new and persistent concerns.

Our agency is responsible for ensuring the protection of all communities—and we are required to consider when public health risks are not receiving the appropriate level of awareness and action. We need open communication at all levels in the agency to ensure such risks are elevated—among our peers, across organizational lines, and between the regions and headquarters. We must use sound judgment in identifying and communicating issues and do so in a way that enables us to engage the full decision-making resources of EPA.

In addition to the usual and vital avenues of communication between and among teammates, co-workers, and managers, the agency has a web-based tool that allows an EPA employee to provide agency senior management with notice of a perceived unaddressed significant risk to public health or the environment that is within the scope of the EPA’s authorities.

Characteristics of issues that fall under this “Report an Issue” tool could include the following:

• There appears to be a substantial threat to human health or the environment.
• The EPA is or can reasonably be expected to be a focus of the need for action.
• Other authorities have a role in addressing the threat and may need federal assistance, including when those authorities appear to be unable to address or unsuccessful in effectively addressing such a threat.
• Recourse to normal enforcement and compliance tools is not appropriate or unlikely to succeed in the near term.
• High and sustained public attention and concern is possible. The risk may involve a matter or subject handled by EPA or a different governmental body.

We all play an important role in ensuring that EPA identifies and appropriately addresses public health and environmental risks consistent with its authorities. All of us help the agency carry out its mission when we promptly elevate significant public health or environmental concerns.

The notification will be shared with the Office of the Administrator (AO) and with a senior-level team that includes representatives of the NPMs, Regions, and the AO. The team will promptly assess the report and recommend any next steps.

To provide a notification, please Identify an Unaddressed Significant Public Health or Environmental Risk. You may also wish to review the record of submitted notifications and the corresponding response.

It is an honor to serve with you and I am confident that together we can continue to make great and enduring contributions to the health and welfare of all people and the environment.

Michael S. Regan
Administrator