More recently, DEQ has begun waiving penalties in favor of requiring companies to conduct sometimes questionable environmental projects. According to the study, in three out of eight cases, companies pay nothing. DEQ claims that most of the these companies are either bankrupt or penniless. DEQ, however, has trouble proving this point. Critics say DEQ rarely seizes assets or otherwise aggressively pursues payment.
Turnover remains high at the agency.
More than 100 employees left in 1997, or about a 10th of all its employees. As part of the re-engineering, DEQ is creating a new promotional route in civil service for inspectors and technicians, besides the traditional route, entering management. A survey examined a random sample of 200 enforcement cases out of almost 15,000 from the past 12 years, and discovered that records for roughly a third of these cases could not be found at all. The agency is digitizing all of its files, including 25 million old ones and says this should prevent such problems in the future.