On Dec. 5, 2025, EPA’s Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance (OECA) issued a memo explaining its “compliance first” enforcement policy. The memo stated that “enforcement is an important tool . . . [h]owever, it is not the only means of achieving compliance.” Instead, OECA “shall prioritize deployment of its compliance assistance tools.” The memo emphasized that states “have primary jurisdiction over many programs,” directing EPA to coordinate with states, Tribes and regulated parties to “avoid duplicative activities and unnecessary contradictions.”
The memo also explained the agency will implement a “well-tailored and clear approach[]” to findings of violations, “based on the ‘best reading’ of the relevant statute and regulation.”
The memo rescinded EPA’s April 26, 2021 Memo, “Using All Appropriate Injunctive Relief Tools in Civil Enforcement” and directed that “until additional guidance on the use of SEPs in settlement agreements is issued, no settlement shall include a SEP.”
Background
For decades, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has relied on the discretionary use of supplemental environmental projects (SEPs) in settlement agreements to redress the impacts of environmental violations on communities. Unlike civil penalties, which go to the US Treasury, SEPs allow companies to voluntarily support projects that can provide important health benefits to impacted communities, including investments in enhanced monitoring or remediating the effects of illegal emissions or discharges.