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Cozad, David, U.S. EPA Region 7, EPA Enforcement and Next Generation Compliance, at 2014 Missouri Hazardous Waste Seminar, November, 4, 2014, Columbia, MO
The document discusses the EPA's Next Generation Compliance strategy, which aims to modernize environmental enforcement and promote compliance through more effective rules, advanced monitoring technologies, electronic reporting, and increased transparency. Some key aspects of the strategy include using real-time monitoring to detect pollution issues early, developing innovative monitoring tools, transitioning to electronic reporting systems to reduce burden and increase data access, and leveraging transparency of compliance information to drive improved performance. The strategy also explores incorporating Next Generation approaches into enforcement settlements by including advanced monitoring or public reporting requirements.
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Cozad, David, U.S. EPA Region 7, EPA Enforcement and Next Generation Compliance, at 2014 Missouri Hazardous Waste Seminar, November, 4, 2014, Columbia, MO
- 1. EPA Enforcement andNext Generation Compliance Missour i Hazardous Waste Seminar Dave Cozad, U.S. EPA November 4, 2014 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1
- 2. Why Next GenerationCompliance? 2 Noncompliance Information on compliance often not readily available Government resources not adequate to address large regulated universe relying exclusively on singe facility inspection enforcement model Not getting all the benefits expected from our rules and permits
- 3. Technology Paradigm Change 3 Credit: CitiSense Air Quality Monitoring Mobile Sensors, University of California, San Diego, Jacobs School of Engineering. See: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/small_portable_sensors_allow_users_to_monitor_expos ure_to_pollution_on_thei
- 4. 1. More effectiverules and permits 4 Rules structured to promote compliance Simplicity Designed to make compliance the default Market mechanisms – efficiency and clarity Transparency as accountability tool Self and third-party certifications U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- 5. 2. Advanced monitoringtechnologies 5 Real-time monitoring – knowing about pollution as it’s happening Facility feedback loops – preventing pollution before it happens Fenceline monitoring Community monitoring Remote sensing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Passive diffusion tubes can be placed at a facility’s boundary and is a low-cost way to measure air toxics
- 6. Advanced monitoring 6 Making the invisible visible U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- 7. Real-Time Monitoring forCyanobacteria in the Charles River, MA
- 8. Advanced Monitoring U.S.Environmental Protection Agency 8
- 9. Example - UsingAdvanced Monitoring To Persuade & Prove Passive FTIR Open-Path Monitor Testing of flares to determine combustion efficiency PFTIR works by measuring flare plume gases 9
- 10. Advanced monitoring 10 An example from flaring enforcement U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
- 11. 3. Electronic reporting 11 Information technologies make new solutions possible Smart tools and 2-way communication Private sector reporting tools Ohio NPDES e-reporting success story Could e-reporting yield benefits for CERCLA & RCRA financial assurance? U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 10000 8000 6000 4000 2000 0 NPDES DMR Compliance in Ohio FY 2009 - 7/08-6/09 Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Reporting Month % eDMR usage Permit Violations Facilities using eDMR
- 12. E-Manifest Byconverting from paper, e-Manifest could reduce burden by 300,000 - 700,000 hours, with annual savings of ~ $75 million for approximately 160,000 waste handlers. Region 6 has established a cross check system using data from Texas’s e-manifest system and EPA permit information to find out: (1) Is the facility receiving the hazardous waste permitted to receive such waste? (2) Does the receiving facility have the appropriate treatment methods indicated on their permit associated with the incoming waste? U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 12
- 13. 4. Increased transparency U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 13 Evidence that effective transparency drives performance SDWA Consumer Confidence Reports Restaurant health inspection grades SDWA: Mailed report on compliance resulted in: Total violations: down 30-44% Health violations: down 40-57% *Bennear & Olmstead, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (2008).
- 14. Leveraging Transparency forCompliance Example: NY State Sewage Pollution Right-To-Know Act 14 New state law will require POTWs to electronically report sewage discharges to government and the public within four hours:
- 15. 5. Innovative Enforcement Save EPA resources from CD implementation and increase incentives on defendants to comply with CD Enhances public transparency Pilots monitoring and transparency approaches that could spread to other venues: Helps establish these new best 15 practices as basis for incorporating into regulations and permits
- 16. Example - IncorporatingNext Gen in Settlements CAA settlement with Shell Deer Park (Texas) 16 Next Gen tools included in settlement: ◦ Innovative technology to reduce pollution from flairs ◦ Enhanced in-plant monitoring for benzene ◦ Regular tank inspections with infrared camera ◦ Fence line monitoring for benzene ◦ Report fence line data on public web site
- 17. Example - IncorporatingNext Gen in Settlements CWA Settlement with Metro. Sewer District (St. Louis, Mo.) Flow monitors on SSO outfalls Consent Decree submissions must be posted to District website for three years Must post discharge locations to District website 17
- 18. Incorporating Next Genin Settlements – Example CWA settlement with Roquette America (Iowa) 18 EPA-approved contractor must complete annual 3rd party audits for O&M plan, SWPPP, and NPDES permits Reports will identify non-compliance, steps to address, and schedule to correct Audit reports will be given to EPA and Roquette at same time
- 19. Path Forward For more information, see the Next Gen Strategic Plan for FY14-17 at http://www2.epa.gov/compliance/next-generation-compliance- strategic-plan-2014-2017 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 19
Editor's Notes
- #3 Think about where we were 40 years ago and where we are today, we know we have made incredible progress in last 40 years. What we have done in improving the environment, as Administrator McCarthy put it recently, is one of the great comeback stories ever. Also know - through our ambient monitoring of air and water, and our inspection and enforcement work, that we have some significant problems left, and that we have sectors where noncompliance is pretty high. We also know that there is a lot about compliance rates that we don’t know. Because, frankly, our rules aren’t really well designed with ensuring compliance in mind. They are old, mostly. They are complicated, arguably overly so. The model is largely this. Largely self implementing by regulated sector, where facilities step forward to get a permit, get limits or have to develop a plan of some sort, and then decide on their own how to meet those limits or what should be in that plan; than all their own monitoring and recordkeeping. Typically infrequent end of pipe monitoring, very little ambient monitoring, not much reporting, and what little there is is almost never reported in real time. Not much is available to public. Regulated entities essentially do their thing and wait for an inspector to show up, maybe. Don’t really know who is in compliance and who isn’t, nor do we or the public know what pollutants are present in the community. That model isn’t the greatest to start with. Add in that govt resources at state and federal level declining. EPA down 15% in last three years. Might be more depending on what happens at polls today. Model that relies on single facility in person inspections is not sustainable.
- #4 But we think advances in technology offer an opportunity to do things differently. Citizen hand-held sensors coupled with smart phones: Handheld citizen air Quality Monitor Digital Environmental Sensors for Temp, Humidity, Pressure, with GPS Electrochemical sensors for: CO 1ppm NO2 20 ppb O3 10 ppb Real time environmental data in public’s hands Quite a change from once a month data collected by a facility, recorded on a piece of paper, and put in a drawer until an inspector shows up. Idea of Next Generation Compliance is to use advances in monitoring and IT that make it possible for us to make progress in dealing with pollution without increasing our resources. Technological revolution in last twenty years. High time our environmental protection enterprise took advantage of that. We know three big things: (1) All kinds of new pollution monitoring tools available, accurate, real-time data. (2) Ability to collect, process, and share information is radically better today than in the past. (3) Transparency is a powerful behavior driver. When you think about addressing pollution through putting those three tools together: advanced monitoring, e-reporting, and transparency – there is potential for transformational change. Happening all around us in other parts of life. Simple example. I have two teenage daughters. My family’s cell company continuously monitors our data usage. And we all get a text when we are approaching our limits. They know I know. It changes their behavior. It’s real time data, e-reported, it’s accurate, and its transparent. Same thing with my wife and my checking account. We don’t balance our checkbook anymore with a hand-written ledger. . We use debit cards, not cash, the bank monitors our usage with every transaction and reports our balance to us on an app on our phones. We both have the app. We both know exactly how much money we have at eveyr moment. Education. Food nutritional labeling, in grocery stores and restaraunts.
- #5 Design more effective regulations and permits that are easier to implement, and thus result in higher compliance and improved environmental outcomes. Regulations that are easier to understand so the regulated community is clear on what they need to do to comply. Build compliance drivers into rules. Make it easier to comply than not. Examples: Gas pump nozzles that are physically engineered to only fit certain vehicles (and not in others). Compliance is automatic, and guaranteed. EPA’s co-proposal for the coal combustion rule (CCR) in 2010 includes, under the Subtitle D option, includes elements to make it more likely that the provisions of this rule will be implemented, like maintaining a web site to make documentation of compliance available to the public, and third party certification re stability of impoundments. These provisions to make more information available to the public and to provide a degree of oversight on facility operations should improve the chances that the protections envisioned in the rule actually happen.
- #6 Just as the Internet has transformed the way we communicate and access information, advances in information and emissions/pollution monitoring technology are setting the stage for detection, processing and communications capabilities that can revolutionize environmental protection. Opportunities for companies to avoid noncompliance, save money, be good neighbors. Opportunties for regulators to protect communities and helps focus government on the biggest environmental problems. Talk about a few of them.
- #7 In this example, invisible benzene vapors from a solvent storage tank become “visible” only due to new detection technology that uses equipment that’s about the size of a video camera
- #8 New England Regional Laboratory. Solar-powered buoy takes water quality measurements every 15 minutes. Results are uploaded to a website. Parameters measured include: temperature, conductivity, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, chlorophyll, and phycocyanin. Phycocyanin measurement used to estimate the level of cyanobacteria, a Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB). EPA Region 1 owns and maintains the buoy. They actually have two -- the one above and an identical one in the nearby Mystic River. How data is reported: As part of a complete package, the buoy vendor maintains a web site and database for each customer. The data is reported to a secure web site. EPA sets up a pass code and can provide the pass code to whomever we want to have access to the data.
- #9 This is a Geospatial Measurement of Air Pollution (GMAP) Can be used to estimate amount and location of methane and VOC emissions. Driver around a facility like a tank farm and see hot spots. On-the spot produce a map of the results, on the rigfht, where red/yellow show emission detections. Screening tool, help identify problems.
- #10 “FTIR” stands for Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, a type of monitor used to measure flare combustion efficiency. “Passive” means there is no emitter telescope. The flare is the “emitter” of an infrared (IR) signal. This technology is not something that EPA possesses. We used CAA information requests, in the context of case development, negotiations and settlement, to require Marathon, Flint Hills Resources, Shell, and other companies to contract the use of the Passive FTIR to measure emissions of VOCs at their facilities. Initially there was only one such instrument available from one consultant. There are now other consultants offering this service and its use is becoming widespread. This increased availability has driven down the price of Passive FTIR monitoring so that it is now not that much more costly than conventional stack testing. The instrument has been tested against other EPA reference methods by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and found to be accurate.
- #11 Here’s what happened when this tool was used at two refineries. In both of these cases, the facilities assumed a 98% combustion efficiency and reported the estimated VOC emissions of 453 and 123 TPY (in BLUE on the chart). PFTIR monitoring showed that actual emissions (in RED on the chart) were 25 times higher at Marathon and 10 times greater at BP Whiting than the estimates by the companies due to lower actual combustion efficiencies.
- #12 As people pay more attention to data, its quality and accuracy tend to improve. Once companies know how their information is shared, compliance increases. E-reporting would give us more information about the whole universe, and help us to identify / target the biggest problems. Better, more accurate data, with fewer errors introduced through data entry. Provide higher-quality data, faster, to improve accessibility and transparency to the public, so they can more clearly understand the environmental challenges in their own neighborhoods. For example, the graph shows the decrease in permit violations after requiring NPDES permittees to electronically reporting discharge monitoring reports. As e-DMR reporting usage increased, violations decreased by 50% in the first year after implementation. Data errors went down from 50,000 to 5,000 per month As the need for data entry and error checking diminished, Ohio EPA was able to move almost five full-time personnel in to other types of work. Turbo Tax – example of private sector reporting to government regulator
- #13 Non-economic benefits include: - improved access to higher quality and more timely waste shipment data for regulators; - nearly real-time shipment tracking capabilities for users; - more rapid notification and responses to problems or discrepancies encountered with shipments or deliveries; - greater access for emergency responders about the types and sources of hazardous waste that are in movement; - one-stop manifest copy submission to EPA and to all interested states through the Exchange Network architecture; - greater transparency for the public about completed hazardous waste shipments to or from their communities; - new data management possibilities that could ultimately simplify the RCRA biennial reporting requirements and consolidate various federal and state reporting requirements for domestic and transboundary shipments.
- #15 This is a New York state law which took effect on May 1, 2013.* This law provides, among other things, that “no later than four hours from discovery of the discharge, the [POTW] shall notify the local health department . . . . . [and] the general public . . . .through appropriate electronic media, including, but not limited to, electronic mail or voice communication as determined by the department.” At least one other state has passed similar laws, e.g., Connecticut’s The Public’s Right to Know of a Sewage Spill Act (Public Act 12-11). * http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/90315.html Second Phase of Sewage Right to Know Act DEC is developing regulations for the second part of the law that requires publicly owned treatment works and publicly owned sewer systems to directly notify the public of discharges. DEC plans to release the draft regulations this fall for public comment. To help municipalities implement the law, DEC is seeking a permanent solution that can be universally accessed by elected officials, adjoining municipalities, and the public to receive notification of discharges of untreated and partially treated sewage within 4 hours of discovery.
- #17 Remember the Shell Deer Park case that we used as an example of the FLIR camera and mentioned as a user of PFTIR? Well, not only did R6 and OECA make use of advanced monitoring in the inspection and development of the case. They also incorporated Next Gen tools within the settlement, which was lodged in late 2013, to better drive compliance. As a result of the settlement, the company will spend at least $100 million on innovative technology to reduce harmful air pollution from industrial flares used to burn waste gases. In addition, much like in BP, the Shell settlement requires 1) increased frequency of leak detection and measurement, 2) use of PFTIR for measuring flares, 3) use of the FLIR camera as an integral part of self-monitoring to detect leaks, 4) a state-of-the art fence line monitoring system to measure benzene from the refinery and chemical plant, and 5) reporting of fence line data on a public website.
- #18 In this CWA settlement, reached in 2011, the St. Louis Sewer District is required to make extensive improvements to its sewer system and treatment plants to eliminate illegal overflows of untreated raw sewage and reduce pollution levels in urban rivers and streams (at an estimated cost of $4.7 billion over 23 years). MSD is also required to invest at least $100 million in an innovative green infrastructure program focused in environmental justice communities in St. Louis. The Consent Decree requires MSD to post all of its submissions under the CD on the MSD public website for a period of 3 years. Prior Administrative Compliance Orders issued in 2007 and 2008 require MSD to post its discharge locations on its website. Other examples of enforcement cases with Next Gen components can be found on the Next Gen Intranet Site that you will hear about in just a few minutes.
- #19 Next Gen is not just for Air Cases. Region 7 brought this CWA case against Roquette America for CWA violations at its grain processing facility in Keokuk, Iowa. As a result of a settlement announced in late 2012, the company is required to upgrade its wastewater treatment plant, complete a sewer survey to identify possible discharge locations, undertake sewer improvements, and perform enhanced effluent monitoring. In addition, Roquette will obtain annual, independent, 3rd-party audits of its compliance with the Consent. Required annual reports will identify non-compliance, along with steps and schedules to address any violations, and will include the 3rd-party audits. http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/645D50E068FF777185257AB50083932A