EPA 300-K-99-001

January 1999

www.epa.gov

United States

Environmental Protection

Agency

Office of Enforcement

and Compliance

Assurance (2201A)

Protecting Your Health & 

The Environment Through

Innovative Approaches to

Compliance

Highlights from the 

Past 5 Years
Message Five years ago, EPA reorganized its compliance programs. This reorganization was

undertaken by Administrator Browner with the goal of making EPA’s enforcement and

compliance programs more effective in protecting public health and the environment.

This booklet describes some of the major initiatives EPA has undertaken to reinvent its

compliance programs. EPA is committed to evaluating all these efforts and continually

improving our compliance programs.

Compliance with environmental laws is essential for achieving the public health and

environmental protections intended by these laws. EPA’s reorganization recognized a

major role, not only for government, but for all stakeholders, in ensuring this compliance. First, enforcement functions were consolidated in a single entity to ensure an

efficient and effective enforcement program. Second, major new compliance programs

were put in place to foster voluntary compliance with public health and environmental

laws. This booklet highlights many of these new compliance programs in the interest

of sharing information with you and the rest of the public.

Over the last five years, EPA has invested considerable time and resources in establishing programs and policies to implement our new vision. This vision focuses on creating an array of new tools, all developed to promote compliance with the Nation’s environmental laws. Among these compliance initiatives are EPA’s nine compliance assistance centers that provide assistance to small businesses and others seeking to comply

with the law, a self-audit policy which provides incentives for voluntary discovery of

violations and rapid disclosures and correction, and the National Performance

Measures Strategy, a new approach to measuring compliance. These and other new

programs complement our strong base enforcement program. All of these efforts benefitted tremendously from extensive stakeholder involvement in their development.

To d a y, as a result of this new thinking, we have stronger programs in place to pro t e c t

the American people and our natural world from the harmful effects of pollution. We at

E PA are committed to continuing our efforts to foster a strong national compliance and

e n f o rcement program. Much work remains to be done in partnership with our colleagues at the state, tribal, and local levels. We welcome suggestions from you and all

stakeholders on how we can continually improve compliance with environmental laws.

As we approach the 21st century, EPA will continue to work with its partners to foster

and refine its efforts to ensure compliance with the Nation’s environmental laws. In

doing so, we hope to further our goals of protecting all Americans from threats to our

health and the environment, and preser ve our environment for future generations.

Steven A. Herman

Assistant Administrator

Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance 1

Assistant Administrator

Message from the
C

2 Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance
Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................4

Protecting your Health and the Environment through 

Compliance Assistance ..............................................................................................6

National Sector-Based Compliance Assistance Centers

Sector Notebooks

On-Site Compliance Assistance Focused on National Compliance Priorities

Protecting your Health and the Environment through 

Policies Designed for Businesses and Small Communities ....................................12

Working with Small Businesses

Working with Local Communities

Working with the Regulated Community in General

Protecting your Health and the Environment through 

Compliance Incentive Programs ..............................................................................15

Targeted Compliance Incentive Programs

Protecting your Health and the Environment through 

Better Targeting and Environmental Results Enforcement ......................................19

Enforcement as a Partnership with States, Tribes, and Territories

Targeting for Environmental Results

Measuring the Results of Compliance and Enforcement Activities

Environmental Results Enforcement

Protecting your Health and the Environment through

Information Sharing ..................................................................................................25

Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance 3

Table

ofContents
4 Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance

Introduction
Many of America’s environmental improvements over the last 25 years are the direct

result of a strong set of environmental laws and an expectation of compliance with

those laws. 

EPA has headquarters, regional and field operations devoted to ensuring compliance

with our Nation’s environmental laws and working in partnership with the states,

tribes, territories, and local governments. 

In late 1994, EPA reorganized its enforcement and compliance operations into the

Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. This reorganization was based on

the principle that EPA needed to complement its enforcement program with new tools

to achieve a higher level of environmental compliance. As part of the reorganization,

EPA committed to take a series of steps to improve compliance. This booklet highlights EPA’s progress to date in taking these new directions.

Since 1994, EPA has developed and implemented a new set of policies and tools to

further improve environmental compliance. Today, you see an increased emphasis on

compliance assistance and compliance incentives programs, as well as new policies and

practices designed to help small businesses and small communities meet their environmental requirements. Many of these efforts are also geared to meet the needs of certain

sectors of the economy.

EPA also maintains a strong enforcement program, developing strategies and initiatives

to target the highest risks to human health and the environment. The enforcement

program also uses approaches which address environmental problems in multiple

media at one time.

Throughout all these new approaches, we recognize the need to target our actions

more effectively and then analyze the real impact of enforcement and compliance

activities on public health and the environment, as well as to share this analysis with

the public. All of our efforts in the last five years have benefitted tremendously from

extensive input from Americans of all walks of life, representing state, tribal, and local

governments, businesses, citizens, professional groups, and academia.

As you read the highlights in this booklet, we welcome and encourage your comments

and ideas on how EPA can continue to fulfill its obligation to the American public –

to protect your health and the environment. 

Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance 5
O ver the past five years, EPA has greatly increased its efforts to develop compliance

assistance tools, particularly for small businesses, in different industry sectors. W h y ?

Because most small businesses will do the right thing if they have the information that

they need to comply. The key is to get information on environmental re q u i rements into

the hands of all businesses, small, medium and large, who want to comply.

Compliance assistance encompasses a variety of efforts, from ensuring that the re g u l a t e d

community understands its obligations by providing consistent “plain language” descriptions of environmental re q u i rements, to a wide assortment of types of training tools.

Below, you can read examples of EPA’s new approaches to providing assistance and

ensuring compliance.

National Sector-Based Compliance Assistance Centers

In partnership with industry associations, environmental groups, universities, and

other government agencies, EPA has launched nine Compliance Assistance Centers, all

accessible through Internet web sites as well as toll-free telephone assistance lines.

These Centers are just one approach to help businesses and governments, especially

small and medium-sized businesses and local governments, better understand and

comply with federal environmental requirements.

Each Center is targeted to a specific industry sector and explains, in plain language, the

federal environmental regulations that apply to that sector. Eight of the nine Centers

we re selected to serve sectors in which there are a large number of small businesses that

can cause real environmental impacts depending on the processes and practices that

they use. The benefit of the Centers is that they make information available to those

businesses who want to do the right thing, but need answers to their questions. Si n c e

not all small businesses have access to the Internet, the Centers also provide information

t h rough toll-free phone lines and fax mail.

Protecting Your Health & the Environment 

6 Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance

Compliance

Assistance

through
Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance 7

Different Roles in Providing 

Compliance Assistance

States and localities are the primary providers of direct assistance to the regulated community. EPA views its role as providing tools for states, tribes,

localities and the regulated community and has prepared a separate booklet

entitled “Compliance Assistance Tools” which is an inventory of EPA national

materials published to date. 

EPA’s limited on-site assistance is done in partnership with the states, and is

most often focused on federally operated programs and national compliance

priorities. In Fiscal Year 1997 alone, EPA provided telephone assistance to

over 40,000 businesses; conducted workshops and training for over 100,000

people; and participated in over 2,000 on-site visits. 

Features of the nine EPA-sponsored Compliance Assistance Centers include regularly

updated news, compliance policies and guidelines, pollution prevention information,

sources of additional information and expertise, summaries of regulations and initiatives, access to e-mail discussion groups, vendor listings and directories, environmental

management software and benchmarking tools that can be downloaded from the

Internet. Some of the Centers also contain “expert help” features that guide a small

business to information, “virtual shops” that allow a user to click on any facet of an

illustrated operation and see what regulations apply, and online access to relevant state

regulations.

For the first time, local governments also have a Center devoted to serving their environmental information needs. The local government center not only serves as a clearinghouse for re g u l a t o ry and compliance information, but also provides case studies and

other “how - t o” information related to waste water management, brown fields, solid

waste, and many other issues. A user-friendly aspect of the Center is its “v i rtual city. ”

This is a mockup of a city with different illustrations, such as a city landfill, city garage,

solid waste truck on the road, a city water tank, just to name a few examples. A local

official can double click on a segment of the city, like the city water tank, and identify

all of the federal regulations that apply to a municipality. The intent is to provide a

visual aid to finding the information that a local government may be looking for.

We know that businesses are using these Centers based on a review of usage data. 

From January to June 1998, the Web sites of the five Centers open at the time logged

almost 75,000 distinct visits at their sites and responded to over 2,000 calls and questions via e-mail and telephone assistance lines. The next couple of pages provide a

short summary on each Center, including each Internet address, so you can access the

Centers yourself. We encourage you to log onto each Center and offer your comments

and suggestions for improvements.
Printers’ National Environmental Assistance Center 

1-888-USPNEAC (877-6322)

http://www.pneac.org

The Printers’ National Environmental Assistance Center offers satellite and on-location

training, compliance guides for state regulations, and two e-mail discussion groups on

technical and regulatory issues: PRINTECH, designed for technical printing issues,

and PRINTREG, which focuses on environmental laws and regulations affecting the

printing industry. Over 1,800 viewers participate in PNEAC’s annual Green and

Profitable Printing national pollution prevention videoconference that is downlinked

to 28 states and Canada. PNEAC is operated by the University of Illinois Waste

Management Resource Center, the University of Wisconsin’s Solid & Hazardous Waste

Education Center, and the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation.

National Metal Finishing Resource Center

1-800-AT-NMFRC (286-6372)

http://www.nmfrc.org

The National Metal Finishing Resource Center allows its Web site users to search technical databases for abstracts, full-text articles, and reports; search a Vendor Directory

for over 300 suppliers of metal finishing equipment and services; and use on-line 

calculators to determine flow requirements for rinsing, coating weights, and costs estimates. On the Compliance Assistance page under state Primary Environmental

Regulatory Agencies, users can click on any state on the map to obtain an online listing of state regulations that apply to metal finishing.

National Agriculture Compliance Assistance Center 

1-888-663-2155

http://www.epa.gov/oeca/ag

The National Agriculture Compliance Assistance Center directs its communications

efforts primarily at agricultural information providers. A popular feature is a comprehensive listing of the 34 major federal laws that apply to farmers, which are also accessible graphically. Users can click on any part of a farm illustration and find out the relevant federal regulations. 

ChemAlliance

1-800-672-6048

http://www.chemalliance.org

ChemAlliance is the new Compliance Assistance Center for the chemical industry.

Among its features is an exciting “expert help desk,” which offers an interactive guide

to finding compliance resources specific to a user’s needs. Take a “virtual plant tour”

to find out which regulations apply to your company’s operations by clicking on a

detailed chemical plant illustration. Make your own bookmark to keep track of

important links to favorite regulatory, pollution prevention, and chemical industry

Web sites.

ChemAlliance is operated by the Center for Clean Industrial Treatment Technologies

(CenCITT), a research consortium, along with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

and the University of Wisconsin’s Solid and Hazardous Waste Education Center.

8 Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance

“After years of 

waiting for this type 

of resource, I find 

the National Metal

Finishing Resource

Center to be a valuable

part of our daily 

business. The Center

provides comprehensive information on all

metal finishing topics

in a timely manner –

instant gratification!” 

Larry Zitko, President,

ChromeTech Inc.
Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance 9

“The resource I 

appreciate most is 

the online technical

information database.

The ability to search

keywords and then

download them out 

of the library is 

convenient and useful

and is also surprisingly

rare in this age of 

i n f o rmation technology. ”

Dave Dudek, North Carolina

State University 

Transportation Environmental Resource Center

1-888-459-0656

http://www.transource.org

The Transportation Environmental Resource Center provides compliance assistance

services for each mode of commercial transportation — air, shipping and barging,

pipelines, rail, and trucking. Each home page offers a menu of technical fact sheets,

regulatory information, contacts, bibliographies, sector notebooks, and related compliance Web sites. The Center is operated by the American Association of Airport

Executives and the American Trucking Association. 

Paints and Coatings Resource Center

http://www.paintcenter.org

The Paints and Coatings Resource Center provides regulatory compliance and pollution prevention information to individual organic coating facilities, industry vendors

and suppliers, and others. The Paint and Coatings Regulatory Locator helps users

find relevant state and federal regulations. A technical database with over 5,000 full

text conference papers and journal articles is also available online.

Local Government Environmental Assistance Network (LGEAN)

877-TO-LGEAN (877-865-4326) http://www.lgean.org

LGEAN is aimed at facilitating communications among state and local officials, 

inspectors, and regulators, and promoting local government participation in the federal rulemaking process. LGEAN is a “first-stop shop” providing environmental

management, planning, and regulatory information for local government elected and

appointed officials, managers, and staff. LGEAN offers 24-hour access to regulatory

and pollution prevention information, message boards, regulatory updates, grants

and information, and much more. LGEAN also offers a fax-on-demand service, a

quarterly newsletter, “SCAN,” and a Web site. 

LGEAN is coordinated by the International City/County Management Association

in partnership with the American Water Works Association, Air & Waste

Management Association, Environmental Council of the States, National

Association of Counties, Solid Waste Association of North America, and Water

Environment Federation.

Printed Wiring Board Resource Center 

http://www.pwbrc.org

The Printed Wiring Board Resource Center offers a state Regulations Locator, with

air, water and hazardous waste regulations hyperlinked for each state. A

Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements Database, containing detailed entries

on over 1,100 federal and Texas regulations, is available for downloading. And a

unique guide provides pollution prevention information for each of the major

process steps for multilayer board manufacturing. PWBRC is operated by the

National Center for Manufacturing Sciences in partnership with the Institute for

Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits.
CCAR-GreenLink®

1-888-GRN-LINK (476-5465) 

http://www.ccar-greenlink.org

CCAR-GreenLink®, the Automotive Compliance Information Assistance Center,

provides compliance assistance to the automotive service industry, primarily owners

and technicians of auto body and repair shops, but also automotive trade associations,

automotive educators and students, and new car dealer service departments. CCARGreenLink® develops materials for the automotive service industry, such as a consolidated screening checklist and environmental curriculum modules that walk shop 

owners and technicians through statutes, regulations, and health and environmental

issues. The “Virtual Auto Shop” allows users to click on any part of a picture to call up

environmental information for a particular shop activity. The Center is operated by

CCAR, the Coordinating Committee for Automotive Repair, a consortium of automotive industry affiliates.

Sector Notebooks

In addition to the Centers, EPA has developed other tools to enhance compliance with

environmental laws on an industry by industry basis. Sector Notebooks are industry

sector profiles which help owners and operators of regulated industries understand

their regulatory obligations through comprehensive plain-English guides. 

Since 1995, EPA has published profiles of 28 major industries and distributed over

300,000 copies in printed and electronic form. You can access these Notebooks yourself through the Internet at “http://www.epa.gov/oeca/sector/”.

Each profile contains information on the overall compliance history of the industry,

applicable federal laws and regulations, industrial processes, the amount and type of pollutants generated, applicable pollution pre vention approaches, and current cooperative

p rograms designed to improve the environmental performance of each industry. T h e

notebooks are virtually the only government publication in which all of these cro s s - c u tting environmental issues are presented in a single document per industry sector.

Why is this important? This information can be used to develop industry-based assistance strategies to improve overall compliance in ways that are cheaper, cleaner, and

smarter. By using the Sector Notebooks, federal and state governments, the regulated

industries, and the public will be better able to define the key environmental issues

associated with each industry. The public will have greater access to information concerning industries within their communities.

If you’re interested in finding out about other compliance assistance tools developed by

EPA, we’ve prepared a separate booklet entitled “Compliance Assistance Tools” which

provides an inventory of EPA national materials published to date. You can access

information on this booklet at “http://www.epa.gov”.

10 Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance
On-site Compliance Assistance focused on National

Compliance Priorities

In addition to the development of compliance assistance materials and tools, over the

past several years, EPA has identified specific industry sectors as priorities for national

sector-wide compliance assistance efforts. There are efficiencies and environmental

benefits to addressing environmental problems on a sector-wide basis.

EPA regions and states have undertaken many such assistance projects in partnership

with industry. EPA’s Fiscal Year 1996 and 1997 “Enforcement and Compliance

Assurance Accomplishments Reports” (available at “http://es.epa.gov/oeca”) contain

descriptions of these projects in every region of the country. For example:

• In 1997, EPA, Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and the Korean Dry

Cleaners Association of Greater Washington partnered to address the needs of the

Korean perchoroethylene dry cleaning community. Dry cleaners were selected

because they can result in significant multi-media chemical releases to the enviro n m e n t

and have the potential to significantly impact human health and the environment.

The partners developed a mentoring program where experienced dry cleaners (coaches), who have been trained by EPA and the states, assisted less sophisticated dry

cleaners to increase their understanding of, and compliance with, environmental

requirements. The compliance rate of participants was estimated to be 20% higher

than other dry cleaners in the area.

• Similarly in 1996, targeted compliance assistance efforts in EPA’s Atlanta Office

included both dry cleaners and chrome electroplaters. These two industries were targeted for compliance assistance in Florida and Georgia due to new national emission

standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAPs) aimed at reducing inhalation risks

to the public and workers. These initiatives educated industry to enhance compliance, evoke changes in behavior, and resulted in increased compliance rates. Georgia

reported an 81 percent compliance rate for chrome electroplaters with the new air

toxics NESHAP. Florida reported 64 percent of dry cleaners targeted this year

entered the regulatory system via notification as a result of compliance assistance. 

Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance 11
Commu

Businesse

12 Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance

Protecting Your Health & the Environment 

through

Communities

by Businesses

and Small

Policies Designed to

Promote Compliance
nities

es

Once the regulated community has access to the information which they need to comply and obtains compliance assistance, they then must use that information to check

their own compliance status. Over the past several years, EPA has worked with our

state and local partners and small business groups to develop specific policies which

provide real incentives for industry and others to voluntarily identify and correct their

own environmental violations. 

Why? Because such policies encourage voluntary actions by the regulated community

to protect public health and the environment, while still providing full openness and

the accountability that the public expects. Three such policies are described below.

Working With Small Businesses

EPA’s Final Policy on Compliance Incentives for Small Businesses is one of the 25 regulatory reform initiatives announced by President Clinton in 1995. Issued in May 1996,

the policy promotes environmental compliance among small businesses with 100 or

fewer employees. The policy rewards responsible small businesses by providing penalty

waivers or reductions if the small business receives compliance assistance, conducts an

environmental audit, detects violations as a result of it, and agrees to correct the violations by a date certain. 

As part of its small business policy, EPA encourages its state partners to combine their

delegated enforcement authorities and compliance assistance efforts to enhance compliance among small businesses. EPA defers to state policies that provide penalty mitigation or waiver for small entities and that are generally consistent with the EPA policy.

More than 150 small entities have returned to compliance under the Agency’s incentives policies. EPA has so far reduced or waived penalties by $900,000 for more than

90 small entities that disclosed and corrected their violations. The Small Business

Policy provides small businesses a whole other avenue by which they can demonstrate

good faith commitment to environmental compliance. 

This work is just one example of how EPA meets its obligations under the Small

Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA). Passed by Congress in 1996,

SBREFA requires agencies to better assist small entities through improved outreach

and compliance assistance activities, development of flexible penalty policies, and consideration of potential impacts on small entities in regulatory development and review.

Working with Small Communities 

Like small businesses, small communities often lack the administrative, technical, or

financial capacity to ensure environmental compliance, but their compliance problems

can have a major impact on the state of the environment. Thirty percent of Americans

live in towns having 2,500 or fewer residents. 

As part of the Clinton Administration’s common sense efforts to reexamine the way we

do business, EPA developed its Policy on Flexible State Enforcement Responses to Small

Community Violations to promote increased compliance with environmental regulations

by small communities. It provides the tools and flexibility that small communities need

to achieve environmental compliance on a sensible schedule and with penalty reducProtecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance | 13
tions for correcting violations. EPA’s policy encourages states to work with small communities to address their environmental problems. The Agency defers to the state’s

efforts to return a small community to compliance.

Protection of public health and the environment remains EPA’s fundamental goal.

En f o rcement flexibility, within the framew o rk of such policies, can promote incre a s e d

compliance by allowing communities to focus on their worst environmental pro b l e m s

first, and by reassuring them that asking for help need not result in the assessment of

a penalty.

Environmental Auditing: 

Working with the Regulated Community in General

In addition to the Small Business and Small Communities Policy, over the past five

years, EPA has developed an Audit Policy which encourages all companies to selfpolice by giving them real economic incentives to self-monitor, disclose, and correct

environmental violations. 

Under the policy, EPA eliminates or reduces penalties for companies that detect violations through an environmental audit or compliance management program, voluntarily disclose the violations to EPA, and take prompt action to correct them. Importantly,

the policy encourages self-policing in a fair manner without tolerating secrecy, providing blanket immunities, or excusing criminal conduct. 

EPA’s policy, Incentives for Self-Policing: Discovery, Disclosure, Correction and Prevention

of Violations (December 1995) was the result of an intensive, 18 month public process

to find the best way to encourage companies to police themselves while preserving fair

and effective enforcement. 

In fashioning this policy, EPA sought the input of other federal agencies, state attorneys general and local prosecutors, state environmental agencies, the regulated community, and public interest organizations. 

Thus far, over 318 companies have disclosed and corrected violations under the audit

policy at more than 1,668 facilities. The rates of disclosing companies and corrected

violations under the policy have increased every year since its effective date. 

EPA recently surveyed users of the Audit Policy. Eighty-eight percent of the respondents said that they would use the policy again, and 84% would recommend it to others. The survey results also reveal that the policy encourages about half of the users to

make specific improvements in the auditing programs and environmental management

systems.

14 Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance
Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance 15

Now that policies exist which provide incentives for industry and others to comply,

EPA has taken steps to actively encourage their use through a variety of new

Compliance Incentive Programs. Why? Because there are real benefits to the public

and the environment when the regulated community audits their own compliance

status and corrects their environmental violations. 

Compliance with environmental laws cannot be achieved without vigorous efforts by

the regulated community to monitor and ensure their own compliance. Use of self

auditing and environmental management systems have become routine practices at

responsible companies. EPA’s compliance incentives programs are geared at encouraging these efforts. As part of our continuing reinvention efforts, the Agency intends

to initiate additional programs, such as those described below, in years to come.

Targeted Compliance Incentive Programs

“Compliance Incentive Programs” use a combination of compliance assistance, environmental audits, self-disclosure of violations, and reduced or eliminated penalties

for those participating in the program. Below are six examples of such projects and

programs which have been undertaken by EPA in partnership with the states and

regulated community.

Companies as Environmental Leaders: 

The Environmental Leadership Program

As part of the Clinton Administration’s reinvention of regulation to achieve the 

best environmental results at the least cost, EPA launched a one year pilot of the

Environmental Leadership Program. This program was designed as a partnership

Protecting Your Health & the Environment 

through

Compliance

Incentive Programs
16 Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance

with industry, to jointly come up with what constitutes an environmental leader.

Facilities of 12 private companies and utilities, as well as two federal facilities, 

used innovative management techniques such as environmental auditing and pollution

prevention to reduce the burden of paperwork and inspections on the facilities, while

enhancing compliance with existing environmental laws.

states were active participants in the ELP selection process. The facilities 

participating in the ELP pilot program helped EPA and the states identify ways to

streamline reporting requirements and reduce inspections, without sacrificing environmental and public health protection. The facilities acted as laboratories to evaluate different elements of what might comprise an “Environmental Leader,” e.g., development

of Environmental Management Systems, mentoring programs, etc.

Compliance Incentive Programs Which Encourage Use of

Environmental Management Systems 

EPA, through its Region 1 New England Office and the New England states, has

implemented the StarTrack program which provides outreach and assistance to facilities with substantial environmental requirements to encourage the use of compliance

audits and environmental management systems to improve environmental compliance

and performance and to provide more facility performance information to the public.

Under the pilot StarTrack program, participating facilities work towards compliance by

conducting annual multi-media compliance and environmental management audits

which undergo third-party verification, implementing environmental management systems, and publishing annual compliance reports to provide the public with information regarding facility progress in waste reduction and energy, water and hazardous

materials usage. 

In the first year of implementation, eight companies in New England participated,

with nine additional facilities joining in year two. Environmental indicator reports of

participating facilities show a history of improvement in environmental performance

and pollution prevention as a result of this compliance incentives program. 

Using Compliance Incentives to Identify Hazardous Chemicals

in Your Community and Improve Accident Response

Among other things, the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act

(EPCRA) requires facilities to submit annual inventories of hazardous chemicals on site

to local fire departments and state emergency responders so that they can be prepared

in case of an accidental chemical release. Unfortunately, there have been many

instances where EPCRA reports have not been filed, accidental chemical releases

occurred, and emergency workers have walked into unknown dangers resulting in

injury or death.

In 1996, EPA learned that a number of accidental releases had occurred at facilities

within the Food and Kindred Products Sector. As a result, the EPA Regions worked

closely with state Emergency Response Commissions to determine whether specific
facilities in the Food and Kindred Products Sector (SIC Code 20) had reported their

inventories of hazardous chemicals on site. Chemicals used by the food processing

industry include anhydrous ammonia, chlorine, sulfuric acid, and nitric acid.

EPA first conducted compliance assistance and outreach efforts, and then gave facilities

a specific period of time to come into compliance and submit their inventories of hazardous chemicals, while paying a greatly reduced penalty of $2,000 per facility for

identified violations.

Some 175 companies signed agreements with EPA to come into compliance with

EPCRA §312. As a result of this program, state and local emergency responders and

community members are better able to plan for, and respond to, accidental releases of

hazardous chemicals.

Reducing Threats to the Nation’s Waterways through

Compliance Incentives

As part of President Clinton’s Clean Water Action Plan, in November 1998 the

Environmental Protection Agency and the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC)

entered into a voluntary compliance program to reduce environmental and public

health threats to the Nation’s waterways from runoff of animal wastes from porkproducing operations.

Under this initiative, participating pork producers will have their operations (as many

as 10,000 facilities) voluntarily assessed for Clean Water Act violations by certified

independent inspectors. Producers who promptly disclose and correct any discovered

violations from these audits will receive a much smaller civil penalty than they might

otherwise be liable for under the law.

The program will help control runoff from animal feeding operations, a major source

of water pollution, associated with such threats to public health and the environment

as Pfiesteria outbreaks.

In implementing this program, EPA will consult closely with the states, who may

administer the program directly.

Using a Multi-Media Approach to 

Compliance Incentive Programs

Another example of a compliance incentives program is the pilot initiated by EPA’s

Chicago Office (Region 5) to secure environmental improvements at steel mini-mills

in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. A mini-mill is a steelproducing electric arc furnace shop with an associated rolling mill. This industry sector

has realized significant recent growth, possibly changing the compliance status of some

facilities with regard to multi-media regulatory requirements.

EPA provided the mini-mill sector a period of six months to self-audit and resolve violations in accordance with EPA’s Audit Policy or, if applicable, the Small Business

Policy. EPA encouraged companies to share their audit results and self-disclose any vioProtecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance 17
lations. EPA also offered outreach and technical assistance, conducted public briefings,

and created a home page on the Internet for companies wanting more information.

Half of the operating mini-mills in EPA Region 5 participated in the project and the

majority of these self-disclosed violations to the EPA and came up with plans to correct them. The Region and states are following up with multi-media inspections of the

facilities that did not conduct self-audits under the program and developing enforcement actions as necessary to ensure compliance within the rest of the sector.

Preventing Risks from Toxic Chemicals 

Through Compliance Incentives

Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), companies that manufacture, process

or distribute chemicals are required to inform EPA of any information that reasonably

supports the conclusion that a chemical substance or mixture presents a substantial risk

of injury to your health or the environment. 

Several years ago, the Agency discovered that some regulated industries were not submitting information on chemical hazards and exposure. To encourage chemical companies to voluntarily audit their records and submit all relevant data to EPA, the Agency

initiated a program that would allow for a company’s liability to be capped at $1 million for those companies that conducted audits, identified violations, and submitted

required substantial risk data within a certain deadline.

As a result, 123 companies undertook environmental audits. EPA received over 11,000

previously unreported studies or reports on chemicals that may cause health or environmental harm and collected over $22.7 million in penalties. 

18 Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance
Targetin

Results

Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance 19

Compliance assistance and incentive programs will continue to be used by EPA

because they help the regulated community comply with the law. But EPA will also

continue to maintain a strong base enforcement program. Why? Because strong

enforcement remains critical to ensuring compliance by those who continue to violate

the law despite opportunities to come into compliance. 

Strong enforcement achieves environmental protection by deterring potential violators,

bringing actual violators into compliance, rectifying damage to the environment, and

assuring that those who follow the law will not be put at an economic disadvantage by

those who ignore their environmental obligations. Since the reorganization, EPA has

implemented a number of new policies and programs to enhance our focus on environmental results which can be achieved through effective enforcement.

Enforcement is a Partnership with state, tribes and territories

Effective environmental regulation requires a strong partnership with states, tribes, and

territories. 

Most federal environmental statutes recognize the importance of this partnership by

authorizing delegations to states of the responsibility for implementing and enforcing

most federal programs. tribal governments remain the primary parties for managing

environmental programs on tribal lands where they have the capacity to do so. This

framework provides states and tribes the opportunity to tailor solutions to address local

health risks and environmental problems.

Protecting Your Health & the Environment 

through

and Environmental

Enforcement

Results

Better Targeting
20 Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance

These statutes also recognize the necessity and importance of the federal Government’s

role and give EPA the authority and responsibility to establish baseline national standards for public health and the environment and to take action to ensure that these

standards are implemented and enforced fairly and consistently throughout the country, so that public health is protected.

Targeting for Environmental Results

Effective compliance and enforcement is not only dependent on a partnership with

states, tribes, and territories, it’s also dependent on effective targeting of the most significant public health and environmental risks. Because of this and a recognition that

government resources are finite, EPA has worked since the reorganization to improve

our ability to target our efforts to areas of greatest need.

EPA has enhanced these targeting approaches by using a broad array of environmental

quality information, demographics, and information on the results of our compliance

monitoring activities. We target our enforcement and compliance assistance efforts taking into account:

• sector-based environmental problems or compliance patterns;

• statute-specific compliance problems; and

• an analysis of compliance/enforcement history and pollutant releases.

New methods of examining these data incorporate risk considerations, which predict

the relative effects of facilities, or groups of facilities, on the human population. 

When targeting is effective and violations are identified, the process of bringing the

violators back into compliance can result in significant impacts on human health and

the environment.

Supplemental Environmental Projects, 

Benefits to the Environment

Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) are an excellent example of how enforcement can result in environmentally beneficial projects that did not exist previously.

Since the reorganization, EPA has increased its use of SEPs. 

A SEP is an environmentally beneficial project which a violator agrees to undertake in

settlement of an environmental enforcement action, but which the violator is not otherwise legally required to perform. In return, some percentage of the cost of the SEP is

considered as a factor in establishing the appropriate settlement penalty paid by the

violator.

In fiscal years 1995 — when EPA first issued a draft SEP policy — through 1997,

EPA negotiated settlements in 820 cases which contained SEPs. The SEPs were valued

at approximately $254 million. Most significantly, these SEPs have contributed to the

reduction of millions of pounds of toxic chemicals releases. 

By definition, a SEP must reduce or remediate the risks or harm that may have been

caused by the violations. Performance of a SEP does not alter a violator’s obligation to
remedy a violation expeditiously and return to compliance. SEPs thus provide environmental and public health improvements which would not otherwise be available except

for the settlement incentives provided by the SEP Policy. SEPs often involve pollution

prevention or other innovative technologies that may result in greater environmental

protection at reduced cost. 

EPA revised its SEP Policy based on early experiences and in 1998, issued the Final

Supplemental Environmental Projects Policy, encouraging public participation when

negotiating SEPs and enhancing the Policy's clarity and flexibility.

Measuring the Environmental Results of Enforcement:

The National Performance Measures Strategy

As part of EPA’s reinvention efforts, we have also focused on better ways to measure

the results of our compliance and enforcement activities. Why? Because through proper measurement, we can determine the real impact of compliance and enforcement on

risk reduction and environmental protection.

In so doing, EPA can determine which tools and strategies are working best to ensure

compliance and to allow the Nation to examine whether the regulated community is

meeting its responsibilities to comply with the law.

In the past, EPA primarily used activity or output measures, such as the number of

inspections conducted, enforcement cases issued, and penalty dollars assessed, as its

principal measures of performance. These numbers remain a useful measure of the general presence of the EPA enforcement and compliance assurance effort, but they do not

help us measure the state of compliance with environmental laws, the environmental

results achieved, nor the degree to which program objectives are being met and noncompliance problems are being addressed.

The National Performance Measures Strategy is EPA’s pioneering effort to identify,

design, implement, and use meaningful performance measures to assess the effectiveness of our national enforcement and compliance assurance program. 

During 1997, EPA held more than 20 public meetings with stakeholders — including

environmental organizations, regulated industries, environmental justice advocates,

state environmental departments, oversight agencies, and academic experts — to identify the “vital few” performance measures which could best serve EPA and the public. 

During 1998, EPA managers and staff, assisted by contractors and expert consultants,

worked to design the measures by developing definitions, information collection and

reporting processes, and modifications to existing data systems. 

Over the course of 1999, the measures will be implemented in stages, and the entire

set of twelve measures (known as the Performance Profile) will be fully operational by

the beginning of Fiscal Year 2000 (October 1999).

The Performance Profile includes eight measures of environmental results or outcomes:

noncompliance rates for selected regulated populations; environmental and human

Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance 21
health improvements from enforcement actions, compliance assistance, and initiatives

which integrate assistance and enforcement; disclosure and correction of violations

using EPA compliance incentive policies; timeliness of return to compliance by significant violators; and recurring or new violations by significant violators. 

These measures will help EPA and the public assess the state of compliance, the environmental improvements resulting from the full range of EPA’s enforcement and compliance assurance activities, and the changes in behavior of regulated entities. The

Profile also includes four measures of program activity or outputs. The number of

inspections conducted and enforcement cases issued will remain important activity

measures, while other output measures of the number of facilities/entities reached

through compliance assistance and the amount of capacity building efforts for state,

tribal, and local governments will also be used to measure performance.

What’s the bottom line? The Performance Profile will allow EPA and the public to

know not just the amount of activities conducted by the enforcement and compliance

assurance program, it will also measure the results achieved by those activities, enable

EPA and the public to examine the relationship between activities and results, and help

identify how strategies and activities need to be changed or applied to produce the best

possible environmental results.

EPA can now determine the pounds of pollutants reduced through enforcement

actions, the percentage of enforcement actions which produce particular kinds of benefits to the environment, and the number of instances in which facilities reduced emissions or took other beneficial actions as a result of EPA enforcement action.

22 Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance

New Approach to Measuring Results

Measuring the Results of Federal Enforcement Actions as

Reductions in Pollutants (FY 1997)

Pollutant Reduction (pounds)

PCBs and PCB-containing Material 576,585,000 

Volatile Organic Compounds 62,562,000

Tailings 28,000,000 

Particulate Matter 24,555,000 

Carbon Monoxide 21,502,000 

Lead 10,297,000

Benzene 7,666,000 

Chromium 6,329,000 

Sulfuric Acid 359,000 

Measuring the Impact of State Actions in New Terms

• Clean Air Act “New Source Review” actions cut NOx by 300 tons in one

case and 162 tons in another case, the equivalent of removing nearly 75,000

passenger cars from the roads a year.

• An Idaho Panhandle Initiative reduced particulate matter by 1,400 tons, the

equivalent of removing over 1 million passenger cars from the road for a year.

Source: FY 1997 Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Accomplishments Report
As individual measures are implemented in 1999, and when all the measures are fully

operational in FY 2000, EPA will be able to better measure the performance of our

programs and their effectiveness in ensuring compliance, provide the public with better

data, and enhance our ability to protect the environment. 

Environmental Results Enforcement

The Performance Profile will be applied to compliance and enforcement activities in

the future to measure their environmental and public health impacts. 

Several examples follow which illustrate how well-targeted enforcement activities,

which apply innovative policies and strategies, can lead to significant improvements for

your health and the environment.

A Whole Sector Approach: Cleaning Up our Air

Over the past few years, EPA has found that frequently the most effective way to

address environmental noncompliance problems is on a sector basis.

A recent example occurred in 1998, when EPA and the Justice Department announced

an enforcement settlement with the seven heavy-duty diesel engine manufacturers who

were part of the largest Clean Air Act enforcement action in history. The settlement

resolved charges that the companies violated the Clean Air Act by installing software

that allowed engines to meet EPA emission standards during testing but disabled the

emission control systems during normal highway driving. When these engines are running on the highway, up to three times the limit of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions

result. Why is this settlement important?

The settlement is expected to prevent 75 million tons of NOx air pollution over the

next 27 years and reduce total NOx emissions from diesel engines by one-third as of

the year 2003. These companies comprise 95 percent of the U.S. heavy-duty diesel

engine market.

EPA estimates that the companies will spend collectively more than $850 million to

introduce cleaner new engines, rebuild older engines to cleaner levels, recall pickup

trucks that have defeat devices installed and conduct new emissions testing. The companies will also undertake a number of projects to lower NOx emissions, including

research and development projects to design low-emitting engines that use new technologies and cleaner fuels.

A Multi-Media Approach: Cleaning Up the Air, Water and Soil 

In another example of “environmental results enforcement,” EPA and state regulatory

agencies worked jointly to address noncompliance across five environmental statutes at

the petroleum refineries of Ashland, Inc. located in Kentucky, Minnesota, and Ohio.

The corrective actions Ashland will undertake include improvements to the wastewater

drainage system at its Ohio facility to prevent the release of volatile organics into the

atmosphere, upgrades to the wastewater treatment system at the Kentucky plant to

Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance 23
reduce the release of harmful chemicals into the Big Sandy River, and the installation

of a series of wells to prevent the release of petroleum contaminants into the

Mississippi River in Minnesota. 

As part of the settlement, Ashland also agreed to perform SEPs to restore and donate

274 acres of ecologically significant dune prairie grassland to the state of Minnesota for

permanent preservation as a scientific and natural area; assist the state of Kentucky

with air monitoring; install two hydrofluoric acid release detection and mitigation systems at the Ohio and Minnesota refineries to provide protection for the workers and

the surrounding communities from possible releases of hydrofluoric acid; establish an

environmental compliance promotion and education program in the state of

Kentucky; and improve an oil/water separation system and two tanks at the Ohio facility to substantially reduce the emissions of volatile organic hydrocarbons to the atmosphere

A Multi-Media Approach: Promoting the Use of Environmental

Management Systems to Prevent Violations from Recurring

A recent settlement with ASARCO exemplifies the benefits of a multi-media strategy

towards enforcement whenever appropriate. This precedential settlement is the first

time the federal government has entered into a settlement that resolves multi-media

violations involving multiple facilities at a single company.

In this precedential settlement, ASARCO was required to pay $6.38 million in penalties and invest in excess of $50 million for environmental cleanup and supplemental

environmental projects (SEPs) to correct alleged hazardous waste and water violations

at two of its facilities in Montana and Arizona. The settlement will result in reduced

levels of toxic heavy metals such as mercury, lead, and arsenic being illegally released

into the environment.

The settlement also marked the first time that a company agreed to establish an

enforceable environmental management system applicable at all of its active facilities

nationwide to identify and correct violations of environmental laws. In ASARCO’s

case, this system covers 38 operating facilities with more than 6,000 employees in

seven states.

24 Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance
Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance 25

Informat

Protecting Your Health & the Environment 

through

Information

Sharing
26 Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance

Over the past five years, in addition to focusing on enforcement actions which lead to

environmental results, EPA also made citizens’ access to compliance and enforcement

information a priority. Why? Because citizens must be involved in environmental protection. However, in order for this to occur, citizens need access to information.

Public access to data allows communities to monitor environmental conditions and

compliance records of nearby facilities and provides an additional incentive for businesses to be in compliance with environmental laws. It also allows communities to

monitor the performance of government agencies charged with implementing environmental laws and improves data quality because the greater the use of information, the

more often errors will be found and corrected.

The Integrated Data for Enforcement Analysis (IDEA) system, for example, provides

interested members of the public with access to more than ten EPA databases. In fact,

many businesses are starting to use this system to monitor their own environmental

performance. 

EPA believes that technology is now making management and maintenance of computer records the most important way to track facility information, and is gradually

replacing the hard copy file approach to managing records. In fact, many states are also

beginning to also provide citizens with access to their compliance records. EPA plans

to continue efforts to expand access to compliance records through the Internet under

initiatives such as the Sector Facility Indexing Project.

Providing the Public with Access to information about EP A’s

enforcement and compliance programs 

A central goal of EPA’s reinvention efforts is to provide comprehensive information about environmental compliance and enforcement issues to the general public and the regulated community in order to help deter non-compliance, promote voluntary action by the regulated community, provide meaningful opportunities for public participation, and protect the public’s right to

know.

The EPA Web site currently contains about 4,200 enforcement and compliance-related documents – and we expect to triple that number by the end of

FY 1999. In addition, EPA’s Enhanced Public Access Task Project will make all

of the Agency’s significant guidance and policies electronically accessible to

Regions, states, industry, and the public by the end of FY 2000. Users will be

able to follow a user-friendly format to browse the system and locate material of interest. 

Last year, EPA also opened an Enforcement and Compliance Docket

and Information Center (ECDIC), which contains a library system for

identifying the Agency’s enforcement and compliance assurance regulations,

policy and guidance, and related documents. This material will be physically

available at the ECDIC via hard copy or on microfilm, along with a report

generator for distributing information to the public. The Center will be another valuable outreach tool of the Agency’s enforcement and compliance

assurance program.
Sector Facility Indexing Project 

The Sector Facility Indexing Project (SFIP), a pilot program being developed by EPA,

is a first step towards integrating and providing access to more environmental information than has ever before been available to the public in one location. During the first

eight months of its availability, the SFIP Internet site has been accessed with approximately 50,000 user sessions and 265,000 hits. 

The SFIP profiles approximately 650 individual facilities in five industrial sectors:

automobile assembly, pulp manufacturing, petroleum refining, iron and steel production, and the primary smelting and refining of aluminum, copper, lead, and zinc (nonferrous metals). 

This project gives citizens the ability to access multi-media environmental data about

each facility on the Internet, such as the number of inspections, compliance with federal regulations, enforcement actions taken, chemical releases, and spills. Also available

is background information on the location and production capacity of each facility, as

well as information on the population of the surrounding area.

The information on each of these facilities is intended to satisfy the potential needs of

a range of stakeholders:

• community groups interested in learning about the overall compliance record of a

nearby facility;

• industrial trade associations interested in better understanding common compliance

problems in order to design compliance and self-policing programs;

• an individual facility interested in identifying pollution prevention activities for its

chemical releases, both in terms of its own record or in bench-marking its performance by looking at the records of similar facilities; and

• and a state or local government interested in better access to integrated, multi-media

environmental data, which could be used to evaluate the impact of current facilities

in a specific geographic area.

From EPA’s perspective, we see several uses for this data. The SFIP allows us to track

compliance records in individual sectors. This is a very important effort in terms of

assisting us in planning and measuring the effectiveness of compliance and enforcement strategies. It allows us to build benchmarks across sectors to aid in targeting

resources for comliance and enforcement activities.

The project has undergone multiple federal and state data quality reviews and the public has also had several opportunities to comment. As a final matter, EPA gave the

facilities themselves the opportunity to review the data. While most of the data was

found to be accurate, EPA made corrections as appropriate and will continue taking

comments as the pilot project evolves.

To allow users to access current environmental information as it becomes available, the

data included in the Project is updated regularly. The database is available on the

Internet at “http://www.epa.gov/oeca/sfi”.

Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance 27
28 Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance

Conclusion

These are just a few examples of new and innova t i ve approaches to doing business

which EPA intends to continue and expand upon in the future. We welcome yo u r

thoughts and suggestions on any of the approaches yo u’ve just read about, or any

n ew ideas which yo u’d like to share. We encourage you to visit our Web sites, listed

on the next page, and to provide us with your feedback. Your input is critical as

E PA’s compliance and enforcement program continues to work to fulfill its mission

on a daily basis — to protect your health and the environment through innova t i ve

a p p roaches to compliance.

Public Access to Information About Your Drinking Water

One of EPA’s primary goals is to ensure safe drinking water for all

Americans. In August 1996, Congress passed extensive amendments to the

Safe Drinking Water Act to ensure that our Nation’s drinking water meets all

health standards. Under these amendments, the Agency will produce an

annual report based on state and tribal data which portrays the compliance

of drinking water systems across the country and which ensures public

access to information about the quality and source of their drinking water.

The first compliance report was issued in September 1998.

1996 data provided by the states showed that 86 percent of all Americans

are served by water systems with no reported violations. Nonetheless, EPA

and the states are working together to vigorously address those who are in

noncompliance with health-based standards, treatment technique requirements, and significant monitoring and reporting requirements. Continued

monitoring and improved reporting data will enable regulators and the public to identify compliance concerns and develop appropriate strategies to

address any risks to public health. The EPA report is available on the Internet

at “http://www.epa.gov/oeca”.
Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance 29

Web Sites

Audit Policy: Incentives for Self Policing

http://www.epa.gov/oeca/auditpol.html

Audit Policy Interpretive Guidance/Results from Audit Policy/Newsletters

http://www.epa.gov/oeca/apolguid.html

Small Business Policy

http://www.epa.gov/oeca/smbusi.html

Small Communities Policy

http://www.epa.gov/oeca/scpolicy.html

Supplemental Environmental Projects

http://www.epa.gov/oeca/sep/

National Performance Measures Strategy

http://www.epa.gov/oeca/perfmeas/npmsfinal.html

OECA Operating Principles

http://www.epa.gov/oeca/princip.html

Sector Facility Indexing Project

http://www.epa.gov/oeca/sfi

Sector Notebooks & One Year Progress Report

http://www.epa.gov/oeca/sector/

Office of Compliance Fact Sheets

http://www.epa.gov/oeca/oc/fact.html

Compliance Assistance Centers Information

http://www.epa.gov/oeca/mfcac.html

1996 OECA Accomplishment Report

1997 OECA Accomplishment Report

http://www.epa.gov/oeca/96accomp.pdf

http://www.epa.gov/oeca/97accomp.pdf

EPA Environmental and Spatial Data

http://www.epa.gov/enviro/

EPA Center for Environmental Information and Statistics

http://www.epa.gov/ceis/

Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking (EMPACT)

http://www.epa.gov/empact/

Index of

Web Sites
30 Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance
Protecting Your Health and the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance 31

Please mail to: 

Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (2201A)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Washington, DC 20460

Attn: Enforcement Capacity and Outreach Office

We welcome your 

comments and feedback.

Comments

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