The Environmental Protection Agency, Region 1 (EPA), used the State Review Framework to assess the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NH DES) operation and administration of the compliance and enforcement programs for Clean Air Act stationary sources, the Clean Water Act NPDES and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act hazardous waste. The State Review Framework (SRF) is a program designed to ensure that EPA conducts oversight of state compliance and enforcement programs in a nationally consistent and efficient manner. Reviews look at 12 program elements covering: data (completeness, timeliness, and quality); inspections (coverage and quality); identification of violations, enforcement actions (appropriateness and timeliness); and penalties (calculation, assessment and collection). Reviews are conducted in three phases: analyzing information from the national data systems; reviewing a limited set of state files; and developing findings and recommendations. Considerable consultation is built into the process to ensure EPA and the state understand the causes of issues, and to seek agreement on identifying the actions needed to address problems. The reports generated by the reviews capture information and agreements developed during the review process in order to facilitate program improvements. They are designed to provide factual information and do not make determinations of program adequacy. EPA also uses the information in the reports to draw a national picture of enforcement and compliance, and to identify any issues that require a national response. Reports are not used to compare or rank state programs.