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United States Environmental Protection Agency
Compliance Monitoring

 

Compliance Monitoring

Quick Resources
Clean Air Act Applicability Determinations
 

A key factor to providing environmental protection is assuring compliance by the regulated community with environmental laws/regulations through effective monitoring and compliance assessment. Unless there is compliance with the requirements that are designed to provide the necessary environmental protection, the promulgation of laws and regulations have little impact.

Compliance monitoring consists of actions to:

• Determine compliance with applicable laws, regulations, permit conditions, orders and settlement agreements;
• Review and evaluate the activities of the regulated community; and
• Determine whether or not conditions presenting imminent and substantial endangerment may exist.

Compliance monitoring consists of a wide range of activities in six basic categories, which may overlap:

Surveillance is generally a pre-inspection activity which consists of obtaining general site information prior to actually entering the facility. Examples may include ambient sampling at the property line or observations of activity at the site.
Inspections (on site) may include record reviews, observations, sampling, interviews, etc., and may be single or multi-media, facility or industry sector-based, or have a geographic or ecosystem focus.
Investigations are generally more comprehensive than inspections and may be warranted when an inspection or record review suggests the potential for serious, widespread, and/or continuing civil or criminal violations.
Record reviews may be conducted at EPA, state or local offices, or at the facility, and may or may not be combined with field work. Records may be derived from routine self-monitoring requirements, inspection reports, citizen/employee tips, or remote sensing.
Targeted information gathering may be used to provide or acquire more accurate information on the status of compliance and/or environmental conditions.
Remediation compliance monitoring of work required by regulation, permit, order or settlement includes ensuring timely submissions, review of submittals for adequacy and oversight of remedial activities. Elements of these activities may include sampling, sample analysis, observations, issuance of information requirement letters or subpoenas and ensuring data quality.

EPA works closely with its regulatory partners in carrying out compliance monitoring activities. States with delegated programs conduct the majority of compliance monitoring activities within their jurisdictions. EPA's role in compliance monitoring includes:

  • Collection and analysis of compliance and enforcement data;
  • Conducting inspections/ investigations for:
    • Programs not delegated to the states,
    • National/Regional priorities,
    • States and tribes, when they request assistance,
    • Program and state grant oversight, and
    • Responding to citizen complaints;
  • Developing policy and legal guidance when questions arise as to the interpretation of Federal environmental laws, regulations and policies; and
  • Technical assistance to states, tribal and local governments.
  • Management and oversight of compliance monitoring enforcement grants to states and tribes.

Information about compliance monitoring data can be accessed on the Planning and Results side bar on the Compliance and Enforcement homepage. Data may be viewed in the Sector Facility Indexing Project (SFIP), which brings together environmental and other information from a number of data systems to produce facility-level profiles for five industry sectors (petroleum refining, iron and steel production, primary nonferrous metal refining and smelting, pulp manufacturing, and automobile assembly) and a subset of major federal facilities. SFIP information relates to compliance and inspection history, chemical releases and spills, production, and demographics of the surrounding population.

There will also be a new system available for public access to compliance and enforcement data, expected to be available in July, 2002. This system is the Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO), which will allow users to view, query and search selected compliance and enforcement data.

This Compliance Monitoring homepage provides access to documents about EPA's compliance monitoring program such as inspection manuals, guides and strategies for specific regulations or for an industry sector (e.g., woodstoves). Furthermore, on this homepage you can find compliance assistance tools and materials that can assist in compliance monitoring.

For example, the Clean Air Act Applicability Determination Index (ADI) can be accessed by clicking on "ADI" under Quick Resources and under the CAA category of the Materials by Statue side bar. The ADI is a computerized database that contains memoranda issued by EPA on applicability determinations, alternative monitoring decisions, and regulatory interpretations pursuant to the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS)(40 CFR Part 60), the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP)(40 CFR Parts 61 and 63), the chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) regulations (40 CFR Part 82), the asbestos regulations (40 CFR Part 61, Subpart M), and the woodstove program (40 CFR Part 60, Subpart AAA).

 

 

 

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