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EMS Action Plan: Goal 3
EPA’s Position on EMS
- EMS Position Statement
- Agency EMS Policies
- Executive Order 13148
- Federal Sector EMS Resources
Fuller Integration of EMS 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.