Enforcement at the EPA: High Stakes and Hard Choices.

• Author: Kettl, Donald F.

Joel A. Mintz University of Texas Press, $24.95 By Donald F. Ketti It's not much fun running the Environmental Protection Agency. Four out of every five of its regulations are contested in court. Billions have been spent, but environmental crises still abound. Yes, the EPA has cleaned up a handful of toxic waste sites. But thousands more are waiting their turn.

Since nobody, including top EPA officials, is very happy with the agency's results, Republican broadsides against the, agency have come as little surprise. House Speaker Newt Gingrich has called the EPA a national disgrace. California Republican Rep. Jerry Lewis complains that environmental officials "are in the enforcement business almost for the sake of it, rather than for what they can accomplish."

Though the GOP's motives are mostly ideological, Americans who are interested in smart regulation ought not reflexively defend the EPA. In fact, it is an agency much in need of renewal. Enforcement at the EPA is a short, provocative volume that provides a good starting point for discussion.

As Mintz points out, there are three complexities that must be unraveled to understand the EPA. First, its mission--securing a clean environment for everyone--is perhaps the most ambitious of any government agency. It is a job so vast that it will always remain partially undone. Second, the nation has provided the EPA with little guidance beyond the exhortation to "clean the environment." The devil lies in deciding just how clean, how soon, and at what price. But Congress and presidents have been of little help, piling detailed and conflicting requirements on the EPA, consistently underfunding the agency, and wrenching the EPA's throttle from "full speed ahead" through "go slow" to "all stop"--and back again.

Third, even when the EPA has known clearly what it wanted to do, it has never been sure how to do it. Enforcement strategies have varied widely, from aggressive regulation in the early Nixon days through weak oversight in the Reagan years to the more recent development of new government-business partnerships.

Combine an impossible job with a mushy mission, unstable leadership, and too little money to accomplish everything an ambitious Congress has laid out for it, and it's little wonder that the agency continues to struggle.

Mintz argues convincingly that an overambitious mandate and uncertain leadership are problems the EPA is probably stuck with. It would be nice if Congress decided, once and...