EPA is seeking public comment on Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO), which was developed in partnership with the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), a national association representing state and territorial environmental commissioners. When final, ECHO provides users detailed facility reports, which include:
* Federal and state compliance inspections;
* Environmental violations;
* Recent formal enforcement actions taken; and
* Demographic profile of surrounding area.
"We encourage all parties interested in environmental protection -- industry, environmental groups, citizens -- to review ECHO during the 60-day pilot period and give us reactions and suggestions about how to make it as useful and effective as we can," John Peter Suarez, EPA's Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. "We believe that ECHO will significantly increase public awareness of information about environmental compliance."
The 60-day comment period provides users and other interested parties, particularly those responsible for facilities included within the database, an opportunity to review and comment on ECHO's content, design and data accuracy. In addition, ECHO provides an online error reporting process to ensure continued public participation on data quality.
Benefits of ECHO include:
* A single point of access to environmental compliance information;
* Providing citizens with easier to understand information regarding environmental
issues;
* Allowing companies to use ECHO as a tool to monitor their record of compliance
under federal environmental laws; and
* Assisting regulated entities in achieving compliance with their environmental
obligations.
The easy-to-use web tool found at http://www.epa.gov/echo, integrates EPA and state compliance information for facilities regulated under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Data reports are updated monthly and cover a two-year period. The system retrieves information from federal and state data entered into EPA databases: the Air Facility System, which provides information on compliance with air permits for various stationary sources of air pollution; the Permit Compliance System, which provides information on companies issued permits to discharge waste water into rivers; and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Information System, a national program management and inventory system about hazardous waste handlers. Moreover, ECHO includes links to additional state enforcement and compliance information.
EPA has field-tested ECHO's approach and data through the Sector Facility Indexing Project (http://www.epa.gov/sfipmtn1/), which presents data for a limited number of industrial sectors, and through a recent four-State pilot in the Pacific Northwest. Public feedback and lessons learned from these projects contributed to ECHO's development.
To ensure that ECHO's data are of high quality, EPA and the states also conducted a comprehensive data review and established an EPA-state network of "data stewards" to manage, research and correct reported errors, as appropriate. Furthermore, ECHO includes an online error reporting process that allows users to alert EPA and the states to possible errors.
More about ECHO and details regarding the 60-day comment period are published
in the Federal Register at
http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-GENERAL/2002/November/Day-20/g29471.htm
REPORT HIGHLIGHTS CONTINUED SUCCESS OF ACID RAIN EMISSIONS TRADING PROGRAM
EPA Administrator Christie Whitman announced the release of a report documenting ongoing trends of significantly reduced emissions stemming from the Agency's Acid Rain Program, the emissions trading program on which President Bush's Clear Skies Act is modeled. The latest data available in the report confirm major reductions nationwide in two acid rain-causing emissions, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.The Acid Rain Program, based on a market-based cap and trade approach to achieving emissions reductions from the electric power industry, uses emission rate requirements to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx), and has set a permanent cap requiring a 50 percent reduction from 1980 emission levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2) by 2010. The most recent data, available in the "Acid Rain Program 2001 Progress Report," confirm that emission reductions of SO2 and NOx under the program have been significant. The Acid Rain Program, created as part of the 1990 reauthorization of the Clean Air Act signed by President George H.W. Bush, set a goal of reducing annual SO2 emissions by 10 million tons below 1980 levels. To achieve these reductions, the law required a two-phase tightening of the restrictions placed on fossil fuel-fired power plants.
Sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants in 2001 were 10.6 million tons, a full one-third reduction from 1990 emissions, a five percent reduction from 2000 emissions and down from 17.3 million tons in 1980. Nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants also continued a downward trend of 4.1 million tons in 2001, a 25 percent decline from 1990 emissions levels and an eight percent reduction from 2000 emissions. These emissions reductions have contributed to measurable improvements in air quality, reductions in deposition and recovery of acid-sensitive waters. The trading component of the SO2 program has significantly lowered the costs of compliance and has not resulted in any significant geographic shifts in emissions.
EPA's "Acid Rain Program 2001 Progress Report" is available online at http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/cmprpt/arp01/index.html along with extensive information on emissions data, allowance transfers, air quality data and atmospheric deposition data.
UPCOMING DEADLINES
Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)December 23, 2002: Any manufacturer or importer of 10,000 pounds or more of chemical substances described at 40 CFR 710.25 at any single site at any time during the manufacturer's latest complete fiscal year before August 25 must report to EPA for each substance.
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
December 31, 2002: Generators or treaters of non-wastewater residues described
under 40 CFR 261.3(c)(2)(ii)(C)(1) that experienced a change in process or operation
generating the waste or in the Subtitle D facility receiving the waste during
2002 must notify the applicable regulatory authority.
December 31, 2002: Generators or treaters of non-hazardous characteristic waste described under 40 CFR 268.9(d) that experienced a change in process or operation generating the waste or in the Subtitle D facility receiving the waste during 2002 must notify the applicable regulatory authority.
DETROIT ENVIRONMENTAL FIRM TO PAY $5.5 MILLION FOR ILLEGAL HAZARDOUS WASTE TRANSPORTATION AND DISPOSAL
U.S. Liquids of Detroit Inc., which does business as USL-City Environmental Inc., in Detroit, Mich., pleaded guilty on Nov. 13, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit to violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Rivers and Harbors Act.Between Aug. 1 and Aug. 15, 1999, USL transported hazardous waste without a permit to an un-permitted landfill and also discharged hazardous waste into the Detroit River. According to the plea agreement, USL will pay a $4.5 million fine and provide $1 million to non-profit organizations for the purpose of conserving, restoring and protecting the watershed of the Detroit River. In addition, USL must develop an environmental compliance program.
The case was investigated by EPA's Criminal Investigation Division and the FBI with the assistance of EPA's National Enforcement Investigations Center. It is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's office in Detroit.
JOINT U.S.-CANADA AIR QUALITY PROGRESS REPORT RELEASED
The United States and Canada jointly announced the sixth biennial Progress Report on acid rain, ozone and other transboundary air quality cooperation as part of the 1991 United States-Canada Air Quality Agreement. The 2002 Progress Report emphasizes continued success in reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), the major contributors of acid rain.The most recent report states that both countries continue to be on target for meeting reduction requirements of SO2 and NOx. The report outlines new requirements for the Ozone Annex to the Agreement signed in December 2000, has the full text of the Ozone Annex, and is the first to provide ambient air quality data for ozone, NOx and hydrocarbons for all sites within 500 kilometers of the U.S.-Canada border. The report details joint efforts on transboundary particulate matter (PM) analysis. In addition, the report includes the second five-year comprehensive review of the Air Quality Agreement, which assesses the Agreement's effectiveness. The review concludes that the United States and Canada continue to successfully fulfill the obligations of the Agreement, but that work remains to be done.
Sulfur dioxide emissions from all affected utility units in 2001 achieved about a 32 percent reduction from 1990 emissions levels and a five percent reduction from 2000 levels. Nitrogen oxide emissions from all utilities in 2001 also continued a downward trend achieving a 30 percent decline from 1990 emissions levels and an eight percent reduction from 2000 emissions. The report also cites analysis of a national long-term wet deposition network (called the National Atmospheric Deposition Program/National Trends Network (NADP/NTN)), which shows continued dramatic reductions in sulfate deposition, up to 30 percent over the past decade.
Copies of the report, "United States-Canada Air Quality Agreement 2002 Progress Report" are available at http://www.epa.gov/airmarkets/usca/2002report.html.