TEST

1. Incident-4
During the site tour, the auditor observes a number
of drums lying on a piece of waste ground within
the site boudary. The drums are not labelled but
appear to contain an oily residue. There is apparent
contamination of the surrounding area by this oily
substance. The area is not identified with the
waste management plan nor has the possible
contamination of land by oil been considered in
evaluation of the environmental aspects

2. Incident-6
QRT is a paper mill operating in a country where
water resources are increasingly scarce and
distribution of water is a serious political issue.
QRT are allocated a maximum daily water input
from a local borehole. However , recent changes
in local legislation mean that this allowance is
likely to reduce in the near future. When the
auditor asks to see the water allowance licence,
the responsible employee replies that the licence is
under review at the local authority and the new
licence has not yet been issued.

3. Incident - 7
QRT, the same paper mill as described above have
set an environmental manegment programme for
the current year. There are no objectives or targets
relating to water consumption. Records of water
consumption for the past year last valid licence.
Water consumption is identfied as a significant
environmenal aspect according to the company’s
records

4. Incident - 10
In the Environmental management Department the auditor reviewed
10 audit reports that contained in total 24 nonconformance reports.
None of them has any annotation to idicate the identified cause of
non-compliance. The auditor also noted that the actions proposed
for 21 nonconformances dealt with the symptoms only and did not
address the causes of nonfonformance. Eight of the conformances
were recurrences of previsouly identified problems.
The procedures covering corrective and audit activity did not require
conducting an investigiation in to the causes for nonconformances,
nor did they clearly require that corrective action needed to eliminate
the cause of nonconformances.
The auditor discussed his observations with the Environmental
Manger and realised that the latter did not quite understand the
difference between ‘curative measures’ and believed in a ‘quick
fix’ remedy.

5. NON CONFORMITY
ISO 14001:2004 4.3.1 requires “The organization shall
establish, implement and maintain a procedure (s) to
identify environmental aspects…” and “The organization
shall document this information and keep it up to date.”
Observation of operations identified aspects related to
waste genetaion in the warehouse, air emissions from
industrial vehicles and water discharge from the QA/AC
lab that were not identified by the organization nor listed
on the documente aspects list.

6. Corrective action
Corrective action - Records will be amended
to add the aspects noted by the auditor.
Recommended by - Environmental Manager

7. NON CONFORMITY
ISO 14001:2004 4.4.6 REQUIRES “The
organization shall identify and plan those
operations that are associated with identified
significant aspects … to ensure they are carried
out under specified conditions…”
At the audit of a large refinery plant it was noted
that all cutoff valves on containment drains were
kept in open position. The personnel explained
that those valves were kept normally open to let
the rain water drain freely.

8. Corrective Action
All valves will be immediately closed.
Recommended by - Environmental Manager.

9. NON CONFORMITY
ISO 14001:2004 4.5.3 requires “The implement
procedures for dealing with actual and potential
nonconformity(ies)…The procedures shall define
requirements for…...b)investigaing nonconformity
(ies) , determining their causes and taking action
…to avoid their recurrence.”
During review of the internal audit programme,
the auditor noted, in many cases, action taken in
response to nonconformities only corrected the
immeditely identified symptom(s) without
removing the cause of the problem.

10. Corrective Action
The environmental manager will review and
amend the procedures for internal audits and
corrective to make it clear that root cause analysis
is necessary and that corrective actions must
address the root causes of the problems. She will
also support implementation of the revised
procedures by conducting additional training for
the audit team and department manager to cover
the nonconformity investigation, root cause
analysis, developing of corrective action and
evaluation-of-effectiveness of corrective action .