In July 2024, the ECOS Environmental Justice (EJ) Workgroup welcomed Iowa’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to provide an overview of U.S. EPA’s audit of DNR’s Form 4700-4, which recently concluded with no findings. Iowa DNR’s presentation slides can be viewed here, and the department has also shared their Data Data Collection Standard Operating Procedure as an additional resource. The meeting recording is available below:
Iowa DNR maintains funding relationships with a variety of federal agencies, several of which conduct routine civil rights audits. U.S. EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights (OEJECR) plans to complete 305 randomly-selected post-award audits of financial assistance recipients by Sept. 2026. OEJECR, together with a contractor and EPA Region 7 staff, contacted DNR by email to initiate the audit, specifying the form and questions to be considered. Iowa notes that the audit process largely consisted of requests for information, document reviews, and a goal of resolution through voluntary compliance. The full audit lasted 47 days from initiation to conclusion, and required no further action by DNR.
Thank you to Rachel Zander of Iowa DNR for sharing her experiences and lessons learned with the ECOS EJ Workgroup.
