Self-Certification

ERP establishes accountability by setting multimedia performance standards that replace individual state permits at a facility and by requiring a self-certification statement. A senior company official must annually certify that his or her facility is in compliance with all applicable state air, water and hazardous waste management standards, and has systems in place to maintain compliance over the course of the upcoming year. This process raises high ranking facility managers' and operators' awareness and prioritization of environmental performance by requiring them to personally certify their facility's compliance. The self-certification form also provides an easy way for facility management and staff to understand environmental obligations and gauge their own environmental performance.

This self-certification approach is supported by plain language workbooks that include a checklist of multimedia regulatory requirements, health and safety information, and pollution prevention advice. The individual components of the self-certification process are:

Sector Performance Standards
Applicability Statements
Self-Certification Forms
Return-to-Compliance Plans
Certification Statements

Sector Performance Standards

ERP is multimedia in design. Compliance certification standards for each industrial sector are based on existing air, water, and hazardous waste state and federal requirements. These standards are presented in the compliance assistance workbooks. The workbook standards consolidate all existing single-medium regulatory requirements, streamline administrative requirements, introduce some new environmental requirements for the sector, and eliminate overlaps and conflicts between the pre-existing single-medium standards.

Applicability Statements

An initial step in the ERP self-certification process is to ascertain that all potentially covered facilities are, in fact, subject to the environmental requirements. If a facility manager receives an ERP certification package (workbook and forms) but does not think ERP applies to the facility, he or she must submit an "applicability statement" indicating why the facility is not covered by ERP.

Self-Certification Forms

Self-certification forms are designed to foster a high level of personal responsibility by companies for compliance at their facilities. Facility owners or managers certify not only that they are in compliance at the time of the certification, but that they have systems in place to remain in compliance over the coming year. These forms are a critical component of the program. The ERP self-certification forms and statement work in tandem with the compliance assistance workbooks. The certification statement requires the signatory to confirm that they have read, understood, and complied with the requirements in the workbook. This connection ensures that facility managers understand their requirements and to what they are certifying.

Return-to-Compliance Plans

If a facility is not in compliance with regulatory standards at the time of self-certification, a facility official must complete a Return-to-Compliance (RTC) plan indicating how and when the facility will come back into compliance. This RTC plan is submitted along with a certification statement indicating the compliance status for all applicable certification questions. States review all RTC plans and follow up on each one; e.g., by inspecting the facility or by telephone, as appropriate, to ensure that the facility officials follow through with the actions described in the plan. Facilities that submit RTC plans may be subject to enforcement action but, except for egregious violations, regulating agencies do not generally take enforcement action against facilities that self-identify and agree to correct violations in an appropriate and timely manner.

Certification Statements

While compliance assistance workbooks and self-certification forms provide the information needed to certify compliance, the certification statement is the legal mechanism ensuring accurate and truthful compliance reports. In the certification statement, the highest-ranking official at the facility (generally the facility owner or manager) indicates the facility's compliance status with all the requirements described in the self-certification work-book and certifies that the facility has systems in place to maintain compliance. The responsible facility official signs the certification statement with notice that false, inaccurate, or misleading statements constitute regulatory violations, which are subject to penalties.

Through this mechanism, the legal obligation for accurate certification (and thus for compliance) is placed firmly on the certifying individual. States target facilities that fail to submit a certification with inspections and enforcement, as appropriate. Likewise, states also target facilities whose self-certifications show inconsistencies either within an individual certification form or from one year to the next, or patterns of non-compliance by multiple facilities under common ownership or control. Facilities that have submitted false information on their self-certification forms or avoided the self-certification requirement also may receive penalties for violations.