Document ID: EPA-HQ-OECA-2009-0494-0004
Agency: epa
Document Type: Supporting & Related Material
Title: 
Posted Date: 2010-01-29T05:00Z

Supporting Statement for Renewal of OECA Tips & Complaints Webpage

Part A

1.	Identification of the Information Collection –

		1(a) 		Title of the Information Collection

Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Tips and Complaints
Webpage

		1(b) 		Short Characterization/Abstract

The Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) is the
component of the Environmental Protection Agency responsible for
administrative, civil, and criminal enforcement of the environmental
laws that EPA administers.  EPA's criminal enforcement program, and, to
a lesser extent, its civil enforcement program are, like other federal
law enforcement programs, dependent on tips and complaints from
concerned citizens and members of the regulated community.  The OECA
Tips & Complaints webpage provides a convenient means by which these
individuals can voluntarily submit tips and complaints regarding
suspected violations of environmental law. 

Tips or complaints received through the webpage are used by civil and/or
criminal enforcement personnel at EPA to determine whether an
investigation is warranted into the suspected or alleged misconduct.  In
some cases, EPA may decide to refer tips or complaints for investigation
to other federal agencies or to State or local authorities within whose
jurisdiction the matter may appropriately fall.  The OECA Tips and
Complaints webpage does not replace or otherwise supplant other means of
providing tips or complaints to EPA; it merely provides a new and
convenient means by which to supply these tips or complaints online.  As
with complaints provided by phone, fax, or electronic mail, we expect
that tippers or complainants are already in the possession of
information that leads them to suspect a violation of environmental law
when then contact EPA to report the matter.  Accordingly, EPA believes
that the burden associated with the webpage is merely that arising from
the need to read the instructions and type information into the
appropriate fields on the webpage.  In our estimate, this amounts to
approximately ½ hour per tip or complaint, for total annualized burden
for all tippers and complainants of 3,780 hours.  While we do not expect
actual labor costs associated with these burden hours, the opportunity
cost of 3,780 burden hours would be approximately $75,146.

2.	Need For and Use of the Collection

		2(a) 		Need/Authority for the Collection

Under the statutes that EPA is charged to administer, apprehending
violators and responding to ongoing environmental violations is central
to the Agency's mission.  See, e.g., 33 U.S.C. § 1319 (Clean Water
Act), 42 U.S.C. § 7413 (Clean Air Act).  EPA's criminal enforcement
program, and, to a lesser extent, its civil enforcement program are,
like other federal law enforcement programs, dependent on tips and
complaints from concerned citizens and members of the regulated
community.  In fact, in some cases, the statute expressly contemplates
that EPA will take action on citizen complaints.  See, e.g., 15 U.S.C.
§ 2647(d) (citizen complaints regarding asbestos hazards).  These tips
and complaints help EPA focus its investigative resources on violations
of environmental law that could otherwise escape detection.

		2(b) 		Practical Utility/Users of the Data

Tips and complaints received through the EPA tips and complaints web
form are used principally by civil and criminal law enforcement
personnel at EPA to investigate reported accidental violations and
intentional misconduct.  When appropriate, the collected information may
be shared with other law enforcement agencies that may have jurisdiction
over the matter reported.

3. 	Non-duplication, Consultations, and Other Collection Criteria

		3(a) 		Non-duplication

OECA’s tips and complaints webpage does not duplicate other EPA
web-based information collections.  OECA’s Senior Information
Resources Management Office (SIRMO) has confirmed that the tips and
complaints webpage does not duplicate other web-based information
collections.

As noted in Section 1, above, the OECA tips and complaints webform does
not replace or otherwise supplant other means of providing tips or
complaints to EPA; it merely provides a new and convenient means by
which to supply these tips or complaints online.  Accordingly, tippers
or complainants remain free to submit their tips or complaints in person
or by telephone, fax, or e-mail.

		3(b) 		Public Notice Required Prior to ICR Submission to OMB.

EPA has published notice of its intent to renew the ICR for the OECA
tips and complaints webpage.  This notice is attached as part of the
renewal package of which this supporting statement is a part.  

EPA received one comment regarding the notice of intent to renew this
ICR.  This commenter complained of governmental inaction on a matter
reported by phone to various agencies, including EPA.  As the comment
did not pertain in any way to the tips and complaints webpage, no
response is warranted in renewing this ICR.

		3(c)		Consultations

In order to confirm its burden estimates, EPA timed the entries of
actual tippers or complainants who have used the OECA tips and
complaints webpage.  In order to preserve the confidentiality of these
tippers or complainants, EPA did not record the names of these tippers
or complainants or otherwise record any identifying information.

		3(d) 		Effects of Less Frequent Collection

Tips and Complaints are provided to EPA on an entirely voluntary basis;
accordingly, there is no specified frequency with which tips or
complaints should or must be provided.  There is, therefore, no basis to
assess the effects of less frequent collection.

		3(f)			Confidentiality

Tippers or complainants are not required to provide contact information
in order to submit a tip or complaint.  However, if contact information
is provided, EPA may use this information to initiate follow-up
communications with the tipper or complainant and may be shared by EPA
with appropriate administrative, law enforcement, and judicial entities
engaged in investigating or adjudicating the tip or complaint.  The
information is otherwise protected from disclosure to third parties to
the extent permitted by law.

Access to the database in which tips and complaints are stored is
limited by system administrator to a small, known universe of users. 
Before this access is granted, these users are informed that any misuse
of the information stored in the database will cause them to lose access
to the database and subject them to disciplinary action.  Contractors do
not have access to the database. 

EPA does not maintain hardcopies of the information supplied through the
webform.  Tips or complaints not acted upon within 30 days are
automatically purged from the database.  Tips or complaints upon which
some action is taken are preserved for a period of five years, pursuant
to the record schedule for criminal investigations. 

		3(g)		Sensitive Questions

The tips and complaints web page does not pose any sensitive questions.

4. 	The Respondents and the Information Requested

		4(a) 		Respondents/SIC Codes

Respondents are expected to be members of the general public as well as
employees of any company subject to federal environmental regulation. 
There is no specific industry or group of industries about which EPA
expects tips or complaints.  For the foregoing reasons, it is not
possible to classify the expected universe of respondents by SIC code.

		4(b) 		Information Requested

(i) Data items, including recordkeeping requirements

The information requested on the tips and complaints web page is listed
below.  Items of information that are required in order to submit a tip
or complaint are shown in italics.

If known, the suspected violator’s name

If known, the suspected violator’s street address

If known, the suspected violator’s city

If known, the suspected violator’s zip code

Tipper’s name

Tipper’s email address

Tipper’s phone number

Tipper’s street address

Tippers city

Tipper’s zip code

Is the violation is ongoing?

Has the tipper has already contacted other authorities?

If another authority already contacted, the name of the department
contacted, if known.

If known, is the violation accidental or intentional?

What type of act constitutes the violation? (Release, dumping, spill,
spraying, etc.)

Does the violation affect land, water, air, workers, or documents?

If known, is the violator an individual, company, or government/military
agency or department?

A description of the incident or hazard.

Directions to the site of the violation.

Checkbox attestation of awareness and understanding of the meaning and
significance of submitting a tips or complaint.

Optional photo upload tool. (To be added within the approval period).

Generally speaking, the items of information requested are not dictated
by environmental statute or regulation; instead, the information is
intended to make it possible to route the tip or complaint within EPA
(or to another, appropriate law enforcement agency) and to provide
inspectors and/or investigators the information that they need to
follow-up on the tip or complaint.  The sole exception is the checkbox
attestation at the end of the web form.  The items of knowledge to which
a tipper or complainant attests by checking this box are dictated by the
general false statements provision of the U.S. Criminal Code, 18 U.S.C.
§ 1001.  In the event that EPA prosecutes a tipper of complainant for
deliberately supplying false information on this web form, this
attestation is intended to frustrate a mistake-of-fact defense that the
tipper or complainant did not understand the nature and/or significance
of submitting a tip or complaint using this web form.

(ii) Respondent Activities

Tippers or complainants are generally expected to review the web form
and complete the form by answering the questions posed.  Those who
choose to do so may also review a general information web page on
reporting an environmental violation and/or a web page that describes
the EPA web privacy policy – the form provides links to these
documents.

Generally speaking, EPA expects tippers to be either a general member of
the public or an employee who believes that their employer has violated
an environmental law.  In either case, EPA expects that tippers or
complainants will come to the web form already in possession of all of
the information needed to submit a tip or complaint.  Even where the
form calls for information that a general member of the public may not
have (say, for example, the address of the suspected violator), the
instructions on the web form explain that the tipper or complainant may
simply enter “unknown” in the field provided for their response.

EPA expects that tippers or complainants who are an employee of the
company about which they are filing a tip or complaint will maintain, as
a matter of customary business practice, the name and address of the
suspected violator.  In all other cases, EPA has no basis to presume
that data items would be maintained as a matter of customary business
practice.

5.	The Information Collected – Agency Activities, Collection
Methodology, and Information Management

		5(a) 		Agency Activities

Many of the activities associated with this web form are either one-time
events that have already occurred or are ongoing agency activities that
are fully automated (such that they do not constitute an ongoing burden
or expense).  The only activities that are ongoing but not automated are
as follows:

Answer respondent questions

Review and distribute tips or complaints

		5(b) 		Collection Methodology and Management

The EPA tips and complaints web form was tested as a “pilot” at a
less prominent location on EPA’s website for a period of months.  Only
after this evaluation period did EPA provide a link to the web form on
its internet home page.

EPA does not check the quality of data entry by tippers or complainants.
 Of course, where a tip or complaints appears to warrant further
investigation, EPA conducts an investigation into the tip or complaint. 
Only in this respect does EPA check data quality.

EPA does not employ special machines or processing technology in
evaluating tips or complaints.  The information supplied by the tipper
or complainant automatically populates a database that is regularly
reviewed by EPA personnel for matters that warrant investigation.  The
information stored in this database cannot be accessed by the public
and, within EPA, access to the database is limited by system
administrator to a small universe of people who are responsible for
reviewing the tips and complaints.

EPA has not eliminated more traditional means of collecting tips and
complaints; the tips and complaints web form simply adds an additional,
convenient method of providing a tip or complaint for those with
internet access.  EPA expects that this method of accepting tips or
complaints will reduce burden for many individuals.  As expected, the
prominence of the tips and complaint web form on our site, the ease with
which the form may be completed, and the relative anonymity that the
internet affords tippers or complainants has resulted in a significant
increase in the number of tips or complaints received.  The web form
also elicits specific items of information that allow EPA to efficiently
route tips or complaints within EPA to the appropriate office.  The
standardized format of the form also represents an advantage over tips
or complaints received by phone, where items of information needed to
evaluate a tip or complaints are more likely to be accidentally omitted.

		5(c) 		Small Entity Flexibility

The tips and complaints web form is an addition to, not a substitution
for, other methods of supplying tips or complaints to EPA; accordingly,
the form, itself, constitutes an increase in agency flexibility with
respect to small entities as well as anyone else who may wish to supply
a tip or complaint.

		5(d)		Collection Schedule

Individuals may submit a tip or complaint at any time. There is no
schedule associated with this collection.

6.	Estimation of the Burden and Cost of the Collection

		6(a),(b)	Annual Respondent Burden & Cost

EPA receives approximately 630 tips or complaints per month through the
existing webpage, for a total of approximately 7,560 responses per year.
 Reading instructions and completing the webform takes approximately a
half hour per response; accordingly, respondents collectively spend
approximately 3,780 hours per year providing tips or complaints through
the tips and complaints webform.  Assuming an average annual wage of
$19.88, the opportunity cost of these burden hours is approximately
$75,146 per year.  This information is summarized in the table shown
below.

Annual Respondent Burden & Cost

Information collection activity	Respondent hours per year	Labor
opportunity

cost per year	Capital/startup costs per year	O&M costs 	Number of
respondents	Total hours per year	Total cost per year

Reading instructions	2,520	  PRODUCT(left,19.88)    =PRODUCT(LEFT,19.88)
\# "#,##0"  50,098 	0	0	7,560	2,520	

75,146

Completing form	1,260	  =PRODUCT(LEFT, 19.88) \# "#,##0"  25,049 	0	0
7,560	1,260

	

	

		6(c),(d)	Annual Agency Burden & Cost

EPA technical staff spends approximately 10 hours per month on system
maintenance and upkeep, for a total of 120 hours of technical work on
the system per year.  At an hourly wage of $24, system maintenance costs
EPA approximately $2,880 per year.  

In 2010, EPA expects to add the option to upload photos to the webpage
and to design and deploy a mobile phone application that permits the
same information collected on the webpage to be submitted through a
web-enabled mobile phone.  These system enhancements, taken together,
are expected to cost $19,700 in 2010, or $6,567 per year when averaged
over the 3-year approval period.  No recurrent costs are expected
thereafter.  

EPA receives very few queries from respondents; accordingly, EPA desk
officers spend barely a quarter of an hour answering respondent
questions per year.  They spend approximately 24 hours per month
reviewing tips and complaints received through the system.  At an hourly
wage of $39, these functions collectively cost EPA approximately $11,232
per year.  The total cost to the agency of operating the tips and
complaints webpage is approximately, $23,410.  This information is
summarized in the table shown below.



Annual Agency Burden & Cost

Information collection activity	Agent hours ($39/hour)	Technical hours

($24/hour)	Annual labor cost	Capital/startup costs per year	Total cost
per year

System maintenance	0	120	$2,880	$0	$2,880

System enhancements

$6,567	$6,567

Answer respondent questions	.25	0	$9.75	$0	$10

Review and distribute tips and complaints	288	0	$11,232	$0	$11,232

TOTAL	$  =SUM(ABOVE) \# "#,##0"  20,689 

		6(e)	 	Bottom Line Burden & Cost Tables

The tables set forth above reflect bottom line estimates.  	

		6(f)			Reasons for Burden Change

There is an increase of 1980 hours in the total estimated respondent
burden compared with that identified in the ICR currently approved by
OMB. This increase reflects the fact that tips and complaints are being
filed at a higher rate than originally anticipated, a strong indication
of the success of this program.  There has been no change in the
information being reported or the estimated burden per respondent.

		6(g)		Burden Statement

			

ICR: Tips and Complaints Webpage Regarding Environmental Violations

OMB Control Number:  2020-0032

	Providing a tip or complaint to EPA is entirely voluntary and use of
the tips and complaints webpage to provide a tip or complaint is also
entirely a matter of tipper or complainant choice.  EPA estimates that
it will take tippers or complainants approximately ½ hour to provide a
tip or complaint using the tips and complaints webpage.  This estimate
includes time for reading the instructions, gathering required
information, and completing the webform.  There are no associated
record-keeping requirements and, accordingly, no associated
record-keeping burden.

Burden means the total time, effort, or financial resources expended by
persons to generate, maintain, retain, or disclose or provide
information to or for a Federal agency.  This includes the time needed
to review instructions; develop, acquire, install, and utilize
technology and systems for the purposes of collecting, validating, and
verifying information, processing and maintaining information, and
disclosing and providing information; adjust the existing ways to comply
with any previously applicable instructions and requirements; train
personnel to be able to respond to a collection of information; search
data sources; complete and review the collection of information; and
transmit or otherwise disclose the information.  An agency may not
conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a
collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB
control number.  The OMB control numbers for EPA's regulations are
listed in 40 CFR Part 9 and 48 CFR Chapter 15.  

To comment on the Agency's need for this information, the accuracy of
the provided burden estimates, and any suggested methods for minimizing
respondent burden, including the use of automated collection techniques,
EPA has established a public docket for this ICR under Docket ID Number
EPA-HQ-OECA-2009-0494, which is available for online viewing at    
HYPERLINK "http://www.regulations.gov"  www.regulations.gov , or in
person viewing at the Enforcement and Compliance Docket and Information
Center in the EPA Docket Center (EPA/DC), EPA West, Room 3334, 1301
Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C.  The EPA Docket Center Public
Reading Room is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday,
excluding legal holidays.  The telephone number for the Reading Room is
(202) 566-1744, and the telephone number for the Enforcement and
Compliance Docket and Information Center is 202-566-1744.  An electronic
version of the public docket is available at www.regulations.gov.  This
site can be used to submit or view public comments, access the index
listing of the contents of the public docket, and to access those
documents in the public docket that are available electronically.  When
in the system, select “search,” then key in the Docket ID Number
identified above.  Also, you can send comments to the Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, 725
17th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20503, Attention: Desk Officer for
EPA.  Please include the EPA Docket ID Number EPA-HQ-OECA-2009-0494 and
OMB Control Number 2020-0032 in any correspondence.