The Environmental Management program is increasing its focus on measuring progress towards long-term waste management and cleanup goals. One measurement of success is the achievement of enforceable milestones, the scheduled activities required by compliance agreements. The majority of Environmental Management milestones deal with the groundwork necessary to accomplish long-term goals. When a project or work task is initiated, milestones are tracked to measure performance.
Milestones can measure large projects, or single activities.
Over the past five years, the Environmental Management program has met 87 percent or 784 out of 904 of its enforceable milestones. In 1993, the Environmental Management program met 74.4 percent of its enforceable milestones, a total of 331 out of 451. Milestones were missed because of additional regulatory issues, the discovery of new problems, lack of technology, or inadequate knowledge of the problem when milestones were established. When milestones are missed, regulators can take a variety of actions, including assessment of fines and penalties or injunctions. Environmental Management is responsible for meeting 328 milestones in 1994 and 268 milestones in 1995.