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GOAL 3
FULLER INTEGRATION OF EMSs
INTO AGENCY PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES
Element 9: Incorporate EMS Priorities
into EPA's Planning and Budgeting Processes
While many of the elements of this action plan
are underway, its ultimate effect depends on EPA's ability to
provide adequate resources for EMS activities on an ongoing basis.
Thus, beginning in FY 2001, each EPA office and region will be
asked to commit annually to specific EMS activities and to provide
the resources needed for implementation through EPA's budget and
strategic planning processes. Regions will also be asked to work
with States through annual planning processes to support activities
that complement EPA's EMS priorities.
Actions:
- Working through EPA's Office of the Chief Financial Officer,
assure that EPA's internal guidance for the FY 2001 operating plan
and the FY 2002 annual budget planning process reflect EMS
activities as a priority; and
- Provide recommendations from the cross-agency Office Director
EMS Council to the Associate Administrator for Policy, Economics,
and Innovation and the Administrator on FY 2001 EMS
priorities.
Element 10: Integrate EMSs into Core
Agency Programs and Activities
EPA has one EMS-type regulatory program already
in place, called the Risk Management Program (RMP) (40 CFR Part
68). This performance-based program applies to
approximately 15,000 US facilities that possess sufficient
quantities of hazardous toxic and flammable chemicals to present
significant acute risk to the off-site public and environment. The
RMP program requires these facilities to systematically analyze the
potential hazards of chemical processes, implement management
systems to prevent accidental chemical releases and effectively
mitigate and respond to any releases that may occur, periodically
audit their management systems and correct any deficiencies, and
periodically report to the government and the public regarding the
implementation of their program.
In collaboration with state and local officials
from Pennsylvania and Delaware, faculty and researchers from the
University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, and
representatives of leading insurance companies, chemical companies,
trade associations and other partners, EPA is currently
investigating market-based approaches to improving compliance with
the RMP regulation using qualified third-party auditors. This
effort involved a successful 18-month pilot experiment at 21
hazardous chemical facilities in Delaware and Pennsylvania that
demonstrated the effectiveness of third party auditors and their
potential viability in auditing compliance with the RMP
regulation.
Element 11: Integrate EMSs into
Compliance Assurance and Enforcement Activities
Increasingly, EPA and State regulatory agencies
are encouraging the use of EMSs that include a specific focus on
improving and maintaining regulatory compliance. For example, EPA's
OECA has been including EMS provisions in enforcement settlement
agreements, and promoting research and evaluation of their
performance. EPA is specifically promoting the use of
compliance-focused provisions as a central component of overall
EMSs in order to prevent, detect, and correct environmental
violations. To further these efforts, EPA will encourage
integration of compliance-focused EMS elements in the civil
inspection program, case work, enforcement initiatives, compliance
assistance efforts, and audit, small businesses, and small
communities self-audit, disclosure and correction policies. EPA
will continue to conduct enforcement and EMS training course for
EPA and state personnel, develop additional compliance auditing
protocols to assist organizations as they implement EMSs, and
publicize the availability of EPA's Audit, Small Business, and
Small Communities Policies to regulated entities to encourage
companies that use EMSs to voluntarily discover, report, and
subsequently correct violations.
Actions:
- Issued National Enforcement Investigation Center
Compliance-Focused EMS - Settlement Agreement
Guidance;
- Track, research, and analyze the effectiveness and efficiency
of compliance-focused EMSs included in current and past enforcement
settlement agreements;
- Continue to encourage compliance-focused EMS provisions, and
self- and third party audits, in future settlement agreements;
- Refined and enhanced the EMS portion of EPA's multimedia
inspection course;
- Continue providing enforcement and EMS training course to EPA
staff and to state regulatory personnel and extend future training
opportunities;
- In the context of conducting single media and multimedia civil
inspections at facilities, evaluate how the presence, absence, or
content of an EMS impacts compliance;
- Continue developing auditing protocols, to augment the series
of eleven such protocols that OECA has already completed and
published, to enable facilities to manage their own compliance and
further the implementation of their EMSs;
- Publicize the availability of EPA's Audit, Small Business, and
Small Communities Policies to regulated entities that use
EMSs;
- Assess EMSs under the "Other Types of Projects" category of the
Supplemental Environmental Projects Policy (SEP Policy);
- Revisit strategies to promote EMSs under the SEP Policy
specifically for small businesses and municipalities; and
- Promote EMSs by incorporating them into the Regions' annual
enforcement and compliance assurance priorities, and by working
with States to include an EMS component in the enforcement and
compliance assurance responsibilities negotiated annually.
Element 12: Incorporate EMSs into
Pollution Prevention Programs
EMSs play a major role in many of EPA's pollution
prevention programs because of their capacity to identify
environmental improvement opportunities that exist outside
traditional regulatory compliance. These opportunities include
improving energy and resource efficiency, addressing product
stewardship responsibilities, and managing unregulated hazardous
chemicals.
Actions:
- Developing an EMS implementation guide that helps businesses
identify, prioritize, and implement pollution prevention
opportunities, assess environmental technologies, manage
unregulated environmental risks, and maximize resource
efficiencies;
- Developing an EMS template for the metal finishing sector and
piloting it with small and medium sized facilities to promote
pollution prevention;
- Promoting use and offering assistance with business practices,
such as environmental cost accounting, which can be integrated with
EMSs;
- Develop a workshop and materials for trade associations
interested in implementing sector-based EMSs with their
members;
- Provide technical assistance to businesses implementing EMSs
through Pollution Prevention Resource Exchange centers; and
- Working with the Nevada Small Business Development Center to
educate banks and insurance companies about the benefits of
financing and insuring businesses with EMSs that practice pollution
prevention.
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