Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Results for FY 2025: A Year Powering the Great American Comeback

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, working with states and Tribes, EPA delivered cost‑effective compliance assistance and compliance monitoring support alongside enforcement, enabling the agency, states, Tribes, and the regulated community to more efficiently address noncompliance and counter emerging environmental, national security, and public health threats. 

EPA’s civil enforcement and compliance assurance program helps to ensure all Americans have access to clean air, land, and water even as this Administration unleashes American energy and industry.

In FY 2025, the program achieved remarkable results. It concluded 2,127 civil enforcement cases, the highest number in 9 years, thereby also: 

• Reducing, treating, or eliminating nearly 116 million pounds of pollution;
• Obtaining commitments of more than $6.4 billion to return facilities to compliance; and
• Assessing over $652 million in civil penalties.

The program also protected U.S. borders from the import of illegal, toxic pesticides and other chemicals not permitted to be sold in the United States. Through cooperative federalism and cross‑agency partnerships—including collaboration with EPA’s criminal, cleanup, and federal facility enforcement teams, other federal agencies, and states, Tribes, and territories—the civil enforcement program delivered tangible benefits for communities across the country.

EPA’s criminal enforcement program is reserved for the most egregious violators, upholds the rule of law, protects the integrity of self‑reported environmental data, and holds accountable those that flout their legal obligations and poison American communities.  

In FY 2025, the criminal program produced strong results: 187 new cases opened, 156 defendants charged (the most since FY 2016), more than $600 million in fines and restitution and court ordered relief, 72 years of incarceration and home detention, and forfeiture exceeding $1 billion in illegal proceeds.

EPA’s Superfund enforcement program is a vital force in the Great American Comeback, protecting and revitalizing communities by cleaning up contaminated sites to help secure clean air, land, and water for every American. Enforcement under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act holds responsible parties accountable for performing or paying for cleanup of hazardous substance contamination that threatens human health and the environment. Superfund cleanup actions prevent or reduce health risks and can return properties to productive industrial, commercial, residential, recreational, and other uses—unlocking economic development.

In FY 2025, EPA negotiated cleanup agreements that require responsible parties to perform the cleanup work or pay for work done by others, which preserves American tax dollars and the Superfund Trust Fund for sites where there are no viable or liable parties.

EPA’s federal facilities enforcement and compliance assurance program ensures the U.S. government and federal contractors adhere to environmental laws and regulations with the same rigor as any regulated entities, addressing challenges affecting Americans—service members, military families, and dedicated public servants among them—at or near U.S. government facilities.  

In FY 2025, EPA investigated issues such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination from military installations and lead exposure in privatized military housing, collaborated with states and Tribes to address contamination at Superfund sites, and ensured hazardous waste facilities were monitored and violations corrected.  

EPA’s compliance program helped ensure that enforcement actions aligned with the clearest, most defensible interpretations of statutory and regulatory mandates. In FY 2025, EPA also confirmed all inspectors with federal credentials met rigorous standards and issued 416 new or renewed federal credentials.  

By integrating compliance assistance, civil and criminal enforcement, Superfund cleanup, and oversight of federal facilities with a strong focus on the rule of law and accountability to the American people, EPA is powering the Great American Comeback. The agency is protecting public health and the environment, advancing economic growth and industrial revitalization, unleashing American energy, lowering costs for families, restoring trust, and empowering states—all while safeguarding the air we breathe, the land we live on, and the water we drink.