Gov. Martin O'Malley's call for state agencies to identify 5 percent of their budgets that might be cut would seem to be a prudent exercise in the face of so much economic uncertainty. But there's at least one agency where officials would be wise to tread lightly.

The Maryland Department of the Environment has been slowly chipping away at a different kind of deficit - a chronic lack of resources to adequately enforce anti-pollution laws. It's a problem that's worsened over much of the last decade and runs completely counter to recent efforts to expand the agency's mission to address such issues as climate change and poultry farm runoff.

The agency handles enforcement for some 26 different programs, from inspecting underground fuel storage tanks to making sure radiation machines in dental offices are in good working order. But it has significantly fewer employees to perform these duties than it had just five years ago. Altogether, Secretary Shari T. Wilson says, MDE has 132 inspectors to check on 205,000 sites across the state. That's made the probability of catching a violator - particularly if a licensee has no past violations or other reason to stand out from the crowd - exceedingly low.

Aside from championing the flush tax to pay for upgrades to sewage treatment facilities, the previous governor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., pinched pennies at MDE and often opposed environmental initiatives such as setting higher clean car standards or reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

The number of inspectors on staff isn't the only measure of effectiveness, of course. There's more to regulating industry than dispatching people in the field. But that lack of inspectors is not helpful if it causes potential violators to become emboldened.

MDE officials say they're confident they can get through the current round of budget cuts without diminishing their enforcement efforts. But more needs to be done to make inspection programs self-sustaining: License fees and penalties must cover the full costs of enforcement. In some cases, that will require General Assembly approval.

The agency has had some well-publicized successes of late from record fines levied against ExxonMobil for the Jacksonville leak and in the coal ash landfill case in Anne Arundel County. But if MDE is to do more to protect Maryland's environment, it will need resources - including enforcement personnel - adequate to the task.