Evidence of impending, serious danger to health or the environment. In many states, a judge will review an environmental audit in his chambers and beyond public scrutiny to determine whether it is protected from public disclosure. Some states also grant varying degrees of immunity to companies that disclose environmental audits. To obtain immunity, a company must generally disclose its environmental audit to the regulatory agency with enforcement jurisdiction, and the company must correct the violations within a reasonable amount of time, generally 60 to 90 days. In allowing these environmental audits, state lawmakers are providing an incentive for companies to identify, disclose, and correct compliance problems voluntarily.
Regulators can focus scarce enforcement resources on willful violators.
And in most cases, the bad actors cannot hide from prosecution behind the screen of an environmental audit. Prosecutors can use evidence obtained outside the audit to bring those violators to justice. But the US Environmental Protection Agency sees such audits as a threat to its authority. EPA has warned states they can lose their federally delegated authority over environmental matters, and their related federal funding, if they enact any law granting privileges or immunity to companies performing environmental audits. Some states have buckled.