whether it had legal authority to force the state to act, so it tried to (behind the scene and in private communication of increasing urgency) pressure the state DEQ and various state authorities to take action.

In retrospect and in hindsight, it should have made a public statement as soon as it was aware of the problem. The Region 5 Administrator has acknowledged her poor handling and resigned over this, so the failure had consequences, so Kazanski's meme of "nobody ever gets fired" is fallacious in this instance.

I do note that the people moaning about the EPA's failure would have been up in arms with its bullying and interference with a state/local matter had it done what it (and they) now says (say) it should have done and has committed to doing next time.