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Telecommunications Industry Compliance Incentive Program

Self-Auditing Program Steers Industry
Toward Better Protections for Public Health and the Environment

Since EPA reached its first Audit Policy settlement with a telecommunications company in 1998, more than 25 telecommunications companies have disclosed violations of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), Clean Water Act (CWA), Clean Air Act (CAA), and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Results include insuring that emergency responders and planners have information regarding the presence of hazardous chemicals at over 2800 facilities, nearly 700 facilities have Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) Plans, and over 400 facilities are in compliance with various CAA requirements. This effort demonstrates that industry and the Agency can work together toward a common goal to achieve greater compliance and a higher level of environmental management without costly litigation.

The Agency achieved its first settlement in this effort with GTE Corporation on January 21, 1998. GTE voluntarily informed EPA that it had failed to notify state agencies and local fire departments of sulfuric acid-filled batteries at a number of sites, in violation of EPCRA. GTE also told EPA that it had violated the CWA by failing to develop SPCC plans for facilities that stored diesel fuel. The settlement resolved violations at 314 facilities. By consolidating the audit disclosures involving so many facilities, EPA and GTE were able to reach agreement through a streamlined process that benefitted the company, EPA, and most importantly, the public and environment.

Including the GTE settlement, more than 3,500 telecommunications facilities have come into compliance with four environmental laws. The chief means for this compliance were 25 civil settlements, 24 of them attributable to the use of EPA's Audit Policy.

Telecommunications companies settling under the Audit Policy spent approximately $2.72 million to achieve environmental compliance at their facilities. EPA waived $45.23 million in potential gravity penalties, while collecting $1.11 million in economic benefit gained by the companies that delayed compliance. EPA considers economic benefit to be an important component of a penalty to ensure that violators do not obtain an unfair advantage over their law-abiding competitors.

The links below are to the press releases and other documents related to the telecommunications company settlements.

Consequences of Discovery by the Government

In contrast to the companies that voluntarily disclosed under the Audit Policy, EPA reached a settlement with MCI WorldCom Inc., after a 15-month investigation of MCI Communications Corp. The settlement required MCI WorldCom Inc., to conduct environmental compliance audits of its facilities nationwide, and pay a penalty of $625,000. The subsequent EPCRA compliance audit resulted in stipulated penalties of $53,500 for violations at 107 facilities. The comprehensive multimedia audit of its WorldCom facilities resulted in disclosed violations at 437 facilities, which were settled in accordance with the Audit Policy for $143,520.

T he documents listed below are Complaints that EPA filed against the Telecommunication Industry companies that were associated with the Telecommunicatins Compliance Incentives enforcement initiative. The cases, for the most part, involved multiple violations of one or more environmental statutes that were resolved through the use of Consent Agreements/Final Administrative Orders (CA/FOs).

The documents listed below are not all inclusive of those associated with the settled cases in the initiative. Additional documents will be added as they become available. The EPA Docket Numbers for the cases are shown which contain the abreviations for the statues involved in the cases.

Administrative Complaints

For more information concerning the EPA Telecommunications Program, contact Phil Milton at (202) 564-5029, milton.philip@epa.gov. Information concerning EPA's Audit Policy may be obtained by contacting Leslie Jones at (202) 564-5123, jones.leslie@epa.gov.

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