The Environmental Protection Agency and the States: working relationships in environmental protection

Abstract

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the States are jointly charged with protecting the nation's environment. The nature of the working relationship (formal/informal contact between federal and state participants implementing intergovernmental programs) between federal and state officials have an important impact on how effectively environmental policy is implemented. A Model of Cooperative Working Relationships is developed to analyze the level of cooperation that exists between EPA regional and State agency officials implementing the Superfund cleanup program. The model is composed of two sets of factors. Strategic factors are more dynamic in nature and include the following: Trust and Involvement. Structural factors provide the larger political and institutional context for these working relationships. These factors include: Relations with EPA Headquarters, Program Capacity (State, Regional), Political Context (State, National), and the Nature of the Problem. A questionnaire is used to collect data concerning the perceptions Superfund officials have about their working relationships and programmatic issues. State officials who are Highly Cooperative with their regional counterparts are more likely to perceive higher levels of Trust, Involvement, and State Program Capacity. However, state officials are less likely to be Highly Cooperative when they perceive higher levels of political support at both the state and national levels (Political Context). Regional officials are more likely to be Highly Cooperative with their state counterparts if they perceive higher levels of Trust and State Political Context. They are less likely to be Highly Cooperative if they believe states have strong cleanup programs (State Program Capacity). A comparison of regional-state perceptions finds that regional officials perceive higher levels of Cooperation, Trust, Involvement, and Regional Program Capacity than their state counterparts. However, regional officials are less likely to view State Program Capacity in a positive manner. These differing views on Program Capacity provide the main source of conflict in the Superfund program. The findings of this study suggest that it is important to focus relationship-building reforms on both strategic (Trust and Involvement) and structural (Program Capacity) factors. Increasing the level and quality of communication, as well as the wider dissemination of capacity-building efforts could result in more cooperative working relationships.