supervisor wiener: i understand that the white house has instructed that under nepa, federal agents are to work with local officials. >> yes, we do. i am not sure how you are characterizing it, but we are all leaders. -- all ears. we have to take their comments on what we have on the table and that will inform. supervisor wiener: for example, sticking with the current management plan, working with the city to improve enforcement, would that be a possibility? >> i don't believe the current status quo is sustainable. we would not be here talking about possible changes. are you asking for some sort of a delay? supervisor wiener: i am talking about what the end result might be. there is a disagreement about whether the current situation is working. there is also a perspective that says it can perhaps, with some smaller changes, or changes to enforcement, to ensure good behavior. that it could be a workable solution. >> it gets into how significant the changes you're suggesting -- we don't believe that the current situation is tenable or sustainable. we see degradation of resources. we see p

told us they sometimes faced delays because the length of time it takes land managers to complete nepa requirements before a permit can be issued. we found the delays could have been reduced if border patrol had used its own resources to perform required nepa environmental assessments and other delays could have been reduced if the agencies conducted impact statements for the region as allowed under the act. we recommended that the agencies take these steps to avoid such delays in the future. in addition, five stations told us that because of the esa and the presence of endangered species, they had to change the timing or location of their ground and air patrols. however, they also told us that these changes had not affected their ability to detect or apprehend illegal aliens on federal lands. second, we found that while land management laws caused delays and restrictions, they had not impacted the operational control status for 22 of the 26 border patrol stations along the southwest border. instead, we found that 18of these stations reported that the remoteness and rugged terrain affe

the council on environmental quality in the department of interior should revise and strengthen the nepa policies, practices, and procedures. we need to strengthen science and injured-agency consultations with noaa and usgs. we also suggested one thing that has not happened, witches -- which is if you look at the stable resources for regulatory oversight, they have not been there from the u.s. government. we suggest that similar to other countries that industry fees support the regulatory agency and that environmental science is also supported by industry fees. it will be interesting to see what this committee says about that. the department of interior -- what we suggested is that some rulemaking is quite important and some prescriptive detailed plans and risk analysis be done as well as a safety case. as you can see by the graph, there are more and more deepwater wells being drilled and altered-deep water drwells being drilled. it is not just the water that the issue here, but it is the geology of the deposits that are becoming quite challenging, and the risks are actually quite high.

the council on environmental quality in the department of interior should revise and strengthen the nepa policies, practices, and procedures. we need to strengthen science and injured-agency consultations with noaa and usgs. we also suggested one thing that has not happened, witches -- which is if you look at the stable resources for regulatory oversight, they have not been there from the u.s. government. we suggest that similar to other countries that industry fees support the regulatory agency and that environmental science is also supported by industry fees. it will be interesting to see what this committee says about that. the department of interior -- what we suggested is that some rulemaking is quite important and some prescriptive detailed plans and risk analysis be done as well as a safety case. as you can see by the graph, there are more and more deepwater wells being drilled and altered-deep water drwells being drilled. it is not just the water that the issue here, but it is the geology of the deposits that are becoming quite challenging, and the risks are actually quite high.