Federal civil penalties for non-compliance with federal regulations are once again going up in 2024…but not quite as bad as last year. It’s the new year and OSHA, EPA, MSHA, and all other US federal agencies have recently published their 2024 annual civil penalty adjustments under the requirements of the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 2015. Under the Act, all federal agencies are required to revise and publish their schedule of civil penalties based on the previous year’s rate of inflation, which is calculated based on the US Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers (CPI-U). 2024 federal civil penalty adjustments are based on a published Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) multiplier of 1.03241.  In other words, all federal fines and penalties for non-compliance are going up by roughly 3.2%.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the updated civil penalty schedules for US federal agencies most relevant to EHS professionals to see how these changes could impact your business.   

OSHA Civil Penalties

On January 11, 2024, The US Department of Labor published its updated civil penalties in the Federal Register, including those issued and enforced by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which become effective January 16. The table below shows a brief comparison of 2023 and 2024 penalty amounts for violations of selected OSHA regulations.

EPA Civil Penalties

As of January 15, 2024, EPA fines have also increased 3.2%. The EPA’s published penalty adjustments provide additional details on how the changes affect penalty amounts under specific regulations. For example, the table below shows a comparison of 2023 and 2024 penalty amounts for violations of selected EPA regulations:

*2023 penalty amounts are or violations that occurred after November 2, 2015, where penalties were assessed on or after January 6, 2023, but before December 27, 2023

**2024 penalty amounts are for violations that occur or occurred after November 2, 2015, where penalties are assessed on or after December 27, 2023

MSHA Civil Penalties

Like OSHA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) operates under the purview of the US Department of Labor (DOL). MSHA has also updated its penalties to account for the 3.2% rise in CPI-U for 2024. The table below shows a comparison of 2023 and 2024 penalty amounts for violations of selected MSHA regulations:

Additional 2024 Federal Civil Penalties

Updated penalty amounts published by other important EHS regulatory agencies can be found at the links below:

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)

Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)

Simplify Compliance and Avoid Costly Fines with VelocityEHS

Penalties for non-compliance are only going up and even a single violation can quickly turn into a significant financial blow that could sink your business. Velocity offers a comprehensive suite of EHS & ESG software solutions that make it easier to manage compliance with a wide range of EHS regulations, helping you to avoid penalties for noncompliance and protect worker health and safety, and the environment.

Request a demo today to learn more about the VelocityEHS Accelerate^® Platform’s range of EHS & ESG solutions and see how we can help you simplify compliance, automate complex and time-consuming compliance tasks, and build a safer and more sustainable workplace.

The post OSHA, EPA, and Other Federal Civil Penalties Increase for 2024 appeared first on VelocityEHS.

Many companies around the world are required by laws and regulatory requirements, including those in their operating permits, to track and report on their waste management and environmental impacts to air and water. The act of identifying and managing these regulatory requirements is known as environmental compliance. If you’re an environmental, health, and safety (EHS) professional managing environmental compliance for your company, you’re already familiar with environmental reporting. And that means you’re also in an ideal position to evolve your environmental compliance program beyond compliance and integrate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles, and start fostering an ESG program.

Your environmental compliance program provides the framework needed for gathering necessary data to evaluate how well your company is maintaining compliance. You’re already tracking your company’s environmental impact and reporting this data at a very high level. In fact, your company’s sustainability reports are already probably using some of this data.

In addition to environmental compliance data, many sustainability reports include how companies are managing utility usage and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which fall under the ESG umbrella. Plus, more ESG focused data will start finding its way into mandated disclosures. Expanding your environmental compliance program to measure utility usage and GHG emissions will elevate your company above compliance and give it a competitive edge.

If you’ve been following this “Step into ESG” blog series, you know there are multiple EHS frameworks to utilize to grow ESG maturity. These frameworks include safety, ergonomics, control of work, health, and operational risk. Environmental compliance is no different and is already greatly contributing to the environmental component of ESG. This blog will examine how your environmental compliance management framework has laid the foundation for an ESG program and what you can do now to prepare for the future.

Why is ESG Important?

Short answer—sustainability. Whether it’s environmental sustainability, social sustainability, corporate sustainability, or showing accountability for how you’re meeting these demands from your stakeholders, ESG plays a pivotal part in making sustainability happen.

ESG puts practices in place that help to protect the environment and people, while being transparent in how this is accomplished. It represents a set of criteria that investors, stakeholders, consumers, and soon governing bodies increasingly use to evaluate the impacts your company has on these resources. In order to truly build business resilience and growth in today’s marketplace ESG initiatives are becoming more essential and should no longer be considered a “nice-to-have,” but an integral business strategy for long-term success and a sustainable future.

Why is Environmental Compliance Important?

The answer is pretty simple—avoiding violations and fines, and the management deficiencies that lead to them. You are the one who makes sure your company adheres to the different governing laws and regulations in place to help protect the environment, ecosystems, and human well-being. This includes measures to control air emissions, waste management, and water quality. Managing an environmental compliance program can be complex and time-consuming but is necessary to avoid the penalties of non-compliance, such as massive fines and even prison, not to mention the impacts to our natural resources and your company’s reputation.

And then there are the reputational and marketplace risks that come with noncompliance, because regulatory agencies often make compliance history public, as EPA does with its Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) database.

Environmental compliance is a regulatory necessity. But built into this necessity comes the reward of protecting the environment and preventing harm to human health. There’s an intrinsic connection between environmental compliance and ESG because both strive to build a sustainable future through environmental preservation.

How Does Environmental Compliance Connect to ESG?

Environmental compliance is the cornerstone for responsible and sustainable practices. It’s an assurance that the environment and its resources are protected. Your environmental compliances management program greatly aligns with the environmental aspect of ESG while also helping to contribute to some of the social and governance components. You can have an environmental compliance management program while also further managing GHG and energy usage.

Growing Regulations for a Sustainable Future

Although there are laws and regulations that drive environmental compliance it is one of the first steps to build a mature ESG program. You’re already managing air, water, and waste by gathering the data to show you’re meeting necessary requirements. Why not expand on this data and start tracking your company’s energy usage and GHG emissions? You can move beyond compliance and help position your company to be more competitive in the ESG landscape.

The environmental pillar of ESG involves not just meeting compliance regulations but taking the next step by reducing the impact your company has on the environment. This means putting policies and practices in place to minimize GHG and air emissions, conserve resources, improve water quality, and reduce waste.

New 2024 Regulations

With the growing concern for sustainability there are some laws and regulations going into effect in 2024 that will require ESG disclosures along with environmental compliance. For example, the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will require ESG disclosures on a range of issues, including climate risks and GHG emissions, biodiversity, air and water pollution, and management of risks and opportunities related to value chain workers, from approximately 50,000 EU and EU-listed companies. Affected companies will need to prepare and submit their disclosures based on the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRSs) developed by European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG).

The largest of these companies (in terms of financial performance and number of employees) will need to start collecting data in 2024 for inclusion on 2025 disclosures. Even if your company isn’t currently going to be affected, these new regulations will have a trickledown effect. Plus, stakeholders are increasingly expecting and demanding that the companies they do business with demonstrate similar accountability for their ESG performance by preparing disclosures.

You should also keep in mind that one of your customers could be required to submit ESG disclosures and account for their supply chain, which might include your company. If you’ve already taken action to incorporate ESG initiatives into your environmental compliance program, you’ve positioned your company to meet your customer’s needs and potentially gain new ones.

Leveraging Chemical Management to Reduce Waste

Another approach to getting ahead of growing regulations is through reducing your company’s generation of hazardous waste. One way to go about this is through better chemical management. This is because some chemicals become hazardous waste at the end of their cycle based on ingredients or specific characteristics, while others do not. Implementing modern green chemistry practices is a strategic approach to build ESG and reduce hazardous waste by selecting safer, more sustainable chemical products, including those that do not become hazardous waste after use.

Green chemistry is the principle of designing chemical products and processes in a way that reduces or eliminates the use or production of hazardous substances. It aims to deliver cost-competitive chemical products and processes that achieve the same function of more hazardous alternatives while reducing pollution and other chemical hazards at the source. It applies across the life cycle of a chemical product, including its design, manufacture, use, and ultimate disposal.

It’s obvious that the current regulations in place for environmental compliance are there for a reason and help preserve our environment and resources. In turn, they contribute to ESG initiatives. However, regulations are constantly evolving, and many governing bodies are starting to incorporate ESG concepts into new compliance policies. The sooner you start implementing ESG processes into your environmental compliance management program the better positioned you’ll be for long-term success.

Community Preservation

ESG stakeholders include external stakeholders such as customers and the communities. Environmental compliance is in place to help preserve communities and their economic growth by safeguarding the air quality, water quality, and managing waste. However, many stakeholders are demanding more than compliance, which is quickly becoming viewed as the bare minimum.

Stakeholders’ demands to move beyond compliance are growing because communities have a need for a safe and healthy environment, and even though environmental compliance contributes to this need, more needs to be done. You’re in the position to further meet these demands and provide even safer environments for surrounding communities by building in ESG.

When you weave ESG policies into your environmental compliance framework, you can do more than meet requirements, you can work towards improving the environment. Preserving the environment helps to preserve surrounding communities and their economic growth. And when the surrounding community’s economy is thriving so will the economic growth of your business.

Strengthen Compliance Reporting through Governance

Governance encompasses the process by which businesses make decisions, manage business risks, and how they hold themselves accountable for the processes put in place. Applying good governance principles and practices throughout the company can help strengthen stakeholder confidence and build business resilience. Compliance is a branch of good governance. Through compliance, businesses show which objectives are being achieved while abiding by laws and regulations put in place to protect people and the environment.

Producing environmental compliance reports shows you’re helping to meet governance practices. The data you collect shows how well you’re managing your environmental compliance program, and by expanding your data collection to include ESG reporting initiatives, you position your company to be more competitive on a global platform.

Integrating environmental compliance and ESG strategies will help to strengthen environmental performance, mitigate risks across the company, and forge a path to true sustainability. As the business world continues to evolve, bridging the gap between environmental compliance and ESG becomes instrumental in building a sustainable future.

Looking for More Information to Help Guide Your EHS and ESG Journey?

You’ve come to the right place. Here at VelocityEHS, we have plenty of resources available giving you expert insights and the tools you need to maintain environmental compliance and continue your ESG journey:

• Webinar—The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) Standards: What Do They Mean to You?
• Webinar—EPA Enforcement: Maintaining Compliance in 2023 & Beyond
• eBook—EHS to ESG: Starting the Journey
• eBook—An Overview of ISO 14001: Using the Standard to Improve Environmental Management

EHS & ESG Thought Leadership Subscriptions:

• Ignite Magazine
• ESG Quick Takes: A Sustainability E-Newsletter

Don’t just take our word for it! Learn from our customer’s experiences and see how different solutions have helped many different companies become safer and more sustainable.

Don’t Forget—Velocity Is Here to Help!

The Velocity Environmental Compliance Solution makes it easy to manage your air emissions, water quality, and waste compliance data. Our state-of-the-art software is built by experts to help you reach your highest levels of environmental performance.

Next, start to transition out of compliance and step into ESG with our award-winning Velocity ESG Solution. Get access to investor-grade data for managing GHG emissions, energy consumption, and tools to strategically align your ESG strategy with your stakeholders.

Velocity offers multiple solutions that make it easier to manage, maintain, and ensure the long-term success of your EHS and ESG programs. The VelocityEHS Accelerate^® Platform offers a single platform providing access to leading technology, expertise, and predictive safety management tools, known as ActiveEHS^®, to help you more proactively address workplace risks and move beyond compliance.

Discover more about how our solutions work together, and request a demo today!

The post Start an ESG Program by Stepping into It Through Environmental Compliance appeared first on VelocityEHS.

By Greg Duncan, MELP, ASP, Sr. EHS & ESG Content Manager, VelocityEHS

Compliance with US EPA air emissions regulations is complex, to put it mildly. Depending on your facility’s industrial operations and processes, locations, dates of construction or modification, and potentially numerous other factors, you may be obliged to comply with dozens of air emissions regulations, each with its own very specific individual requirements. In addition, state and local agencies can provide their own variations and interpretations of federal rules or impose additional standards with which the facility must comply.

Not surprisingly then, an entire industry of regulatory content providers and compliance consultants has emerged to relieve many of the burdens covered facility owners face in meeting these complex regulations. Regulatory content providers and compliance consultants are an invaluable resource for businesses to ensure compliance, but at its heart, compliance with EPA air emissions regulations rests squarely on accurate and reliable emissions data, and the ability to efficiently capture, analyze, and report that data. Since the early days of the EPA in the 1970s, EHS and environmental compliance managers have turned to spreadsheets and basic database software to manage their air emissions data. These systems were never an ideal solution to meet the unique challenges of air emissions monitoring, analysis, and reporting, but were unfortunately the only technologies that could support these complex calculations and reporting functions required under the regulations. Luckily, that is no longer the case.

Today’s purpose-built air emissions software solutions are specifically designed to perform and optimize the complex monitoring, analysis, and reporting functions required under EPA air emissions reporting regulations. Continuing innovation in these software solutions is making air emissions compliance simpler, less time-consuming, and far more cost-effective, especially in the complicated and evolving regulatory landscape facing industries in the US.      

Key Air Emissions Regulations & Requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA)

The most commonly applicable air emissions regulations affecting US businesses are those established under the US Clean Air Act (CAA). Among all US environmental legislation, the CAA and its subsequent regulations are arguably the most complex. The CAA establishes EPA’s authority to develop and enforce National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect public health and public welfare, and to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants from a variety of industrial sources. It achieves these objectives by directing the states to develop and enforce state implementation plans (SIPs) that regulate emissions from these industrial sources within each state to a degree that meets the federally established NAAQS.

Federal EPA and state environmental agencies achieve this fundamental mission by issuing technology-based standards for different types of industrial air emissions sources. Although these standards may very well apply to your business, the full scope of CAA regulations affecting stationary industrial sources (e.g., GHG reporting, mobile source regulations, clean air markets and emissions trading programs, Ozone layer protection, radiation, asbestos, etc.) is far too broad to cover here.

For the purposes of this discussion, the focus is on key requirements for stationary sources under the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) at 40 CFR Part 60 and its subparts, the New Source Review (NSR) and Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) regulations, and the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) Air Toxics regulations.  Here is a very brief summary of each of these parts of the federal regulations. If you have a covered facility under these regulations, please click the links throughout this section and review the regulations in their entirety to assess your full compliance obligations.

What Type of Emissions Source is Your Facility?

A major distinction that will significantly influence your facility’s compliance requirements under the various CAA regulations is the difference between major sources, minor sources (sometimes referred to as non-major sources or area sources), and synthetic minor sources.

A facility’s potential to emit (PTE) is key to distinguishing between these three emissions source categories. EPA states that PTE, “means the maximum capacity of a stationary source to emit a pollutant under its physical and operational design.” PTE describes the maximum capacity of a stationary source to emit a given air pollutant under its physical and operational design and is used to determine whether a source qualifies as a major source, minor source, or synthetic minor source.  

Major Sources

EPA defines “major sources” as stationary sources or groups of stationary sources that emit or have the potential to emit 10 tons per year or more of a hazardous air pollutant, or 25 tons per year or more of a combination of hazardous air pollutants, including:

• Particulate matter (PM)
• Carbon monoxide (CO)
• Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
• Sulfur dioxide (SOx)
• Nitrogen oxides (NOx)

Major source thresholds for “hazardous air pollutants” (HAP) are 10 tons/year for a single HAP or 25 tons/year for any combination of HAP. Lower thresholds apply in NAAQS non-attainment areas (but only for the pollutant that are in non-attainment). Facilities classified as Major Sources are subject to stringent CAA Title V monitoring and reporting requirements.

Minor Sources

A minor source is any stationary source that is not a major source. “Minor source” means a source that emits, or has the potential to emit, regulated New Source Review (NSR) pollutants in amounts that are less than the major source thresholds under  the Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program, with a few exceptions. The EPA generally does not require minor sources to obtain operating permits, although some states and local agencies do require registration of minor sources.

Synthetic Minor Source

A synthetic minor source means a source that otherwise has the potential to emit regulated air pollutants in amounts that are at or above those for major sources, but that have taken on some voluntary operational restriction so that the facility’s PTE is less than the major source threshold. Such restrictions are established within a state-run Federally Enforceable State Operating Permit (FESOP). The primary purpose of a FESOP is to establish the facility as a “synthetic minor” source. Potential permit restrictions/conditions include emissions limits, emissions caps, and operational limitations on production, raw material usage or hours of operation in order to ensure emissions remain below major source thresholds.

EPA states that, “Any physical or operational limitation on the capacity of the stationary source to emit a pollutant, including air pollution control equipment and restrictions on hours of operation or on the type or amount of material combusted, stored, or processed, shall be treated as part of its design if the limitation or the effect it would have on emissions is federally enforceable.” Under this definition, sources that would otherwise qualify as major sources that can obtain enforceable FESOP permit limitations from the EPA or delegated SIP state authority containing physical or operational limits to bring their emission below the major source threshold are referred to as synthetic minor sources.

New Source Performance Standards (NSPS)

The CAA requires EPA to identify important categories of stationary sources of air pollution, and to establish Federal standards of performance for new sources within these categories. These New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) apply to newly constructed sources or those that undergo major upgrades or modifications. NSPS regulations are found in 40 CFR 60 and establish permitting requirements for affected facilities and define equipment specifications as well as operation and measurement requirements.

NSPS regulations include 106 individual subpart requirements for permitting and operations for a long list of facility types and industrial operations. For a full list of NSPS subpart regulations that may apply to your facility, click here.

New Source Review (NSR) & Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD)

New Source Review (NSR) regulations establish permitting requirements for new and modified emissions sources (i.e., industrial facilities). NSR permits are legally binding documents that facility owners and operators must follow, and specify what construction is allowed, air emission limits, and facility operating conditions including installation of regulatory-prescribed “Best Available Control Technology (BACT)” to minimize emissions to the greatest feasible extent. Most NSR permits are issued by state or local air pollution control agencies. EPA issues permits in some cases.

EPA establishes the basic requirements for an NSR program, although states may develop unique NSR requirements and procedures tailored for their NAAQS attainment needs so long as the program is at least as stringent as EPA’s requirements. EPA must approve these programs in the state’s SIP. States may be delegated authorities to issue permits on behalf of EPA and are often referred to as “delegated states.”

Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) applies to new major sources or major modifications at existing sources for pollutants where the area the source is located is in attainment or unclassifiable with regard to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). It requires the following:

1. installation of the “Best Available Control Technology” (BACT)
2. an air quality analysis
3. an additional impacts analysis
4. public involvement

National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) Air Toxics regulations  

Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) and other toxics air emissions are a primary concern when it comes to protecting human health and the environment. HAPs include pollutants that are known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects including reproductive effects or birth defects, or adverse environmental impacts. NEHSAPs were some of the first emissions standards established under the CAA upon their passage into law in 1970, shortly after the founding of the EPA.

EPA has defined a list of 188 specific HAPs. HAPs are commonly produced by a wide range of sources including industrial sources such as chemical factories, refineries, and incinerators, and even from small industrial and commercial sources, such as dry cleaners and printing shops. Under the 1990 Amendments to the CAA), EPA has regulated both major and non-major sources of air toxics but has mainly focused monitoring and enforcement efforts on major sources. 

NESHAPs regulations are published under 40 CFR Parts 61 and 63. Similar to NSPS, NESHAP regulations contain an equally complex 23 subparts in 40 CFR 61 and 139 subparts in 40 CFR 63, each establishing a specific set of emissions performance, monitoring, and reporting requirements for a wide variety of industrial processes and facilities who manufacture certain types of chemical products.

While the NESHAP regulations apply to all stationary sources that emit HAPs above established thresholds, although they do not specifically require minor source emitters to obtain any type of operating permit, consistent with NSPS and NSR/PSD requirements. NESHAP sources that meet the Clean Air Act definition of “major source” must obtain a CAA Title V operating permit and generally receive a full compliance evaluation by the state or regional office at least once every two years. Minor sources and synthetic minor sources have less frequent, lest intensive compliance evaluations, although other factors such as state/federal information collection and enforcement priorities, facility compliance history, location, operational patterns, and others as Determined by the EPA’s Clean Air Act Stationary Source Compliance Monitoring Strategy (CAA CMS).

Stationary sources subject to NESHAPs are required to perform an initial performance test to demonstrate they are not emitting HAPs above a maximum amount or concentration for that HAP. To demonstrate ongoing compliance, NESHAP covered sources are generally required to monitor control device operating parameters established during the initial performance test and may also be required to install and operate continuous emission monitoring equipment to measure emissions and demonstrate compliance.

NESHAP regulations require owners and operators of affected sources to submit specified reports (including performance test results, control equipment performance data, and HAP emissions monitoring data, etc.,) electronically to the Compliance and Emissions Data Reporting Interface (CEDRI), available within EPA’s Central Data Exchange (CDX). Major source/Title V permit facilities must submit emissions data annually.

The Common Air Emissions Compliance Thread

At their core, all CAA regulations have one thing in common: they require owners and operators of facilities who emit air pollutants above certain threshold amounts to, at a minimum, accurately monitor, analyze, and report air emissions data to applicable state and/or federal regulators.

Air emissions data are derived in several different ways:

• Continuous direct measurements using one of the following methods:
  • Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (CEMS) that continuously measure actual emissions levels from a stationary source. The CEMS directly measures the pollutant of concern or measures a surrogate pollutant for the pollutant of concern.
  • Continuous Opacity Monitoring Systems (COMS) that continuously measure opacity, which is a measure of the amount of light attenuated by particulate matter in effluent emissions.
  • Continuous Parameter Monitoring System (CPMS) measures a parameter (or multiple parameters) that are a key indicator of control system performance. The parameter is generally an operational parameter of the process or the air pollution control device (APCD) that is known to affect the emissions levels from the process or the control efficiency of the APCD. Examples of parametric monitoring include temperature, pressure, or flow rate monitoring.
• Estimates using direct, infrequent stack testing.
• Estimates based on average emission rate information (e.g., mass flow and AP-42 Compilation of Air Emissions Factors ).

EPA regulation and enforcement of both EPCRA and CAA regulations is heavily dependent on voluntary compliance and reporting from regulated facilities. This is evidenced by the fact that, in FY 2022, EPA performed just over 5,800 inspections across more than 800,000 covered facilities in the US. This equals approximately 0.725% of all regulated facilities, and that’s for all facilities covered under ALL EPA regulations including CAA, Resource Recovery and Conservation Act (RCRA), Clean Water Act (CWA), and all other EPA enforceable regulations.

You might think based on these enforcement figures that EPA is spread far too thin, but the electronic reporting requirements and systems that support EPCRA and CAA regulations give EPA a powerful tool for uncovering non-compliance. Among those approximately 5,800 inspections performed in FY 2022, EPA initiated 112 new criminal cases. That’s not to mention the administrative and civil penalty cases, most likely prompted by poor reporting compliance from covered facilities, that were opened and prosecuted last year.

Also keep in mind that EPA doesn’t like to lose these cases. Among the criminal cases adjudicated in FY 2022, an individual defendant was prosecuted in 88% of the criminal cases charged, and the criminal enforcement program’s conviction rate was 94% in FY 2022.

Here are a few other EPA compliance statistics that show this Agency isn’t messing around:

• Court sentencing in cases adjudicated in FY 2022 resulted in a total of 21 years of incarceration for individual defendants.
• Individual and corporate defendants paid $149,312,313 in fines and restitution with $7,862,500 in court-ordered environmental projects
• Defendants were required to forfeit an additional $214,110,581 of illegal proceeds in FY 2022

To make up for a continued lack of on-site inspection personnel in recent years, EPA has developed ingenious statistical models and analysis methods to uncover non-compliance and aggressively target its enforcement actions based on reporting data alone. In addition to strategic targeting of compliance and enforcement resources, monitoring data and other compliance information is made available to the public through the EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO). Anyone visiting the ECHO portal can view your facility’s emissions, compliance history and enforcement actions, and other detailed facility information that could be potentially damaging to your business’ reputation and corporate image.

As regulated businesses, it’s time to level the playing field and ensure you’ve got high quality air emissions reporting data at-the-ready to not only meet your monitoring, analysis, and reporting requirements, but to give your business an edge when it comes to reducing your environmental impact, pursuing environmental management excellence through standards like ISO 14001, and demonstrating your commitment to ESG performance for your stakeholders.  

VelocityEHS Can Help You!

The VelocityEHS Accelerate® Platform helps you simplify compliance, build a framework for effective EHS management programs and put you on a solid foundation for ESG performance. When it comes to Environmental Compliance in particular, we really mean it. Our Environmental Compliance Solution, part of the VelocityEHS Accelerate® Platform, simplifies emissions monitoring, calculation, and reporting with innovative capabilities that scale to handle every air emissions compliance application, from simple emissions inventory tracking on up to full CAA Title V Permit compliance.

The Air Emissions capabilities of our Environmental Compliance Solution give your business cutting-edge performance when it comes to meeting complex CAA regulations. You can automatically track HAPs and other regulated air emissions from point source emissions sensors and control equipment in real-time with integrated CEMS/CPMS/COMS data logging via our OSIsoft© PI Interface. You can also streamline manual data collection with interactive, mobile enabled PDF emissions data collection forms that instantly sync to your emissions database from across your facility, or even your entire enterprise. You can graphically map facility emission units, control equipment and sources, access a full equation library & custom formula builder, and receive automated alerts for permit exceedances, approaching limits, and other critical permit compliance tasks. From there, your data can be easily exported into pre-built reporting formats that are designed for direct submission to CDX, TDX, TCEQ STEERS, and other state and federal reporting interfaces.

If you’re still relying on spreadsheets or simple database systems to manage your air emissions data collection, analysis, and reporting tasks, it’s time to step into the 21^st century. Ditch the old systems and look at the Air Emissions capabilities of our Environmental Compliance Solution, part of the VelocityEHS Accelerate® Platform.

Request a demo and see for yourself how easy air emissions compliance can be.

The post Simplifying EPA Air Emissions Compliance appeared first on VelocityEHS.

Aside from this year’s numerous wildfires that have affected air quality around the world, or when you pass a stinky chemical facility, how often do you actually think about the air you’re breathing? 

Clean air is essential for all life on our planet, though due to breathing being an autonomic function of the human body that you don’t even have to think about, it’s often taken for granted.  

• Clean air is a fundamental human right, yet over 99% of humans on our planet are breathing contaminated air.  
• Air pollution is the greatest environmental risk to human health, yet it’s one of the main avoidable causes of death and disease globally. 

The International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies is observed every year on September 7^th to recognize this dissonance and address how we can help keep our air clean. With it being a human right, that also means that we all have a responsibility to do our part to avoid actively contributing to air pollution and do our best to keep it clean for our fellow humans.  

Let’s discuss some ways we all can participate in the International Day of Clean Air and breathe easier.  

Why Clean Air is So Important 

Our ecosystems, immune systems, and the general well-being of our planet depend on clean air to thrive.

But it’s not just about the absence of pollutants, it’s about the presence and quality of vital gases like oxygen.  

The quality of the air we breathe directly impacts our respiratory systems, cardiovascular health, and can even affect cognitive function. Poor air quality is linked to a host of health issues, including respiratory diseases, heart problems, and even premature death. It’s estimated air pollution causes approximately 6.7 million premature deaths annually. 

Airborne pollutants can also harm plants, animals, and aquatic life, disrupting food chains and biodiversity for the entire planet. 

The Path to Cleaner Air 

The International Day of Clean Air serves as a reminder and platform to raise awareness about air quality and ideally, to inspire collective action. 2023 is the fourth year of the INTL Day of Clean Air and its theme is Together for Clean Air, meant to highlight “the urgent need for stronger partnerships, increased investment, and shared responsibility for overcoming air pollution.” 

Air pollution impacts all stakeholders—not just the average human, but high-level organizations like the UN and other international groups, national governments and the private sector. By working together, these groups can mutually benefit by addressing the challenges of air pollution and promoting sustainable practices.  

Here are some ways that all stakeholders can contribute: 

• Reducing Emissions: Reducing our carbon footprint, using cleaner sources of energy, adopting sustainable transportation options. 
• Promoting Green Spaces: Supporting initiatives that encourage the development of forests and urban green spaces to act as natural air filters. 
• Advocacy and Policy: Supporting and advocating for stricter air quality regulations and policies on sustainable business operations. 
• Individual Choices: Using public transport, reducing plastic waste and conserving energy. 
• Education and Awareness: Spreading knowledge about sources and the effects of air pollution to empower communities, or even just a few more people. 

Each of these actions can be taken by individuals or larger organizations, and they all add up. Although keeping our air clean is a responsibility, that doesn’t mean it’s all on you.  

Looking Forward 

Keeping the air clean is a persistent battle, but thanks to groups like EPA and events like the INTL Day of Clean Air, the fight’s been going on for decades. So, let’s give them a hand in applause and assistance.  

On this International Day of Clean Air, let’s think of the small changes we can make to reduce our pollution contribution; read up on some resources to share with our circles of fellow humans and spread awareness; sign an online petition for cleaner air; but most importantly, remember that every action counts. 

What Can VelocityEHS Do? 

If your organization is looking to take action and join in the fight for cleaner air, the Air Emissions capability within the VelocityEHS Environmental Compliance Solution can help.  Air Emissions gives you a centralized, cloud-based system for recording and analyzing air emissions data from all sources across your entire enterprise. Perform complex emissions calculations in real-time to get the most accurate, up-to-date monitoring capabilities available. The Environmental Compliance Solution offers a fast and easy way to simplify compliance with a wide variety of local, federal, and international air quality standards. 

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By Claire DeMarco, Events Marketing Intern

VelocityEHS recently hosted the webinar “EPA Enforcement: Maintaining Compliance in 2023 & Beyond,” presented by Senior EHS & ESG Content Manager, Greg Duncan. This session summarized:

• The basics of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) key laws and regulations, enforcement policies, and the consequences of the penalties.  
• What current reporting standards are under National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives (NECI) and what future enforcement priorities may look like.
• The most relevant current news regarding EPA compliance advisories and enforcement alerts.
• The best practices organizations use to adapt to evolving standards.

What are Some of the Key Existing EPA Regulations?

The EPA enforces more than 30 pieces of environmental legislation and hundreds of subsequent regulations that could affect your business. Greg addressed the four which have the biggest impact on businesses:

The Clean Air Act (CAA)

The Clean Air Act (CAA) establishes, by far, the most complex set of regulations and the largest in terms of volume of text. The CAA law regulates air emissions from both stationery and mobile sources, requiring states to develop State Implementation Plans (SIPs) and maintain compliance with National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The law bases its permit requirements on a classification between major and non-major sources of air pollution, as well as its designation of what are considered hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), among other air contaminants. The compliance standards set for HAP, called the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) require routine compliance monitoring and reporting, as well as standards for New Source Review (NSR) and Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD).

The Clean Water Act (CWA)

The Clean Water Act (CWA) prohibits unpermitted releases of pollutants into the “Waters of the United States” and regulates the quality of surface waters. Facility-specific permits specify what substances to monitor, how to monitor them, the amount to monitor, and set requirements for reporting. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) establishes the framework for permitting of individual facilities based on specific pollutant discharge characteristics of the facility. NPDES permits are typically issues by states with EPA-approved state plans, or by federal EPA in states without an approved state plan. Many states, under EPA guidelines, now have the option to accept Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMRs) electronically using NetDMR online reporting.

The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA)

The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) outlines the requirements surrounding emergency planning and “Community Right-to-Know” reporting for hazardous and toxic chemicals. Sections 301 to 304 detail emergency planning and emergency notification requirements, providing standards for chemical emergency response plans and methods to report accidental releases. Sections 311 to 313 define “Community Right-to-Know” requirements, as well as what chemicals present at covered facilities must be reported publicly through the Toxics Reporting Inventory (TRI) Form R.

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) equips the EPA with “cradle-to-grave” oversight and control over the entire lifespan of hazardous waste from generation to transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal. No matter how much they emit, all waste generators have basic requirements intended to ensure that waste is properly identified, managed, and treated prior to disposal. A facility’s hazardous waste generation types and amounts will determine its generator status (VSQG, SQG, or LQG), and different requirements may apply for reporting, manifesting, and waste minimization activities, depending on generator status.

EPA Enforcement and Initiatives

Many environmental statutes contain both civil and criminal penalty provisions, with civil liability often resulting in adverse settlements and monetary penalties, injunctive relief, and involuntary Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEP), while criminal liabilities can bring criminal fines, restitution, and even incarceration.

EPA has limited enforcement resources in terms of its number of inspectors and number of facilities it can inspect each year. EPA openly publishes its enforcement directives and strategies, giving regulated businesses valuable insight into what current and future enforcement policies the agency will pursue. The EPA uses National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives (NECI) to prioritize and complete a variety of inspections from facilities across the US to ensure compliance. Future NECIs could include mandates to reduce exposure to lead, as well as addressing coal combusting residuals. Additional proposed NECIs for the 2024-2027 period will also include:

Risk Management Program (RMP) Rule

The CAA requires that EPA take an active role in preventing chemical accidents involving hazardous substances by publishing regulations and mandating Risk Management Plan requirements for certain facilities to ensure they are prepared for chemical emergencies and to minimize accidental chemical releases.

Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP)

EPA has outlined 41 categories of covered industry and facility types who must calculate their GHG emissions using prescribed methodologies and submit annual emissions reports that are then verified.

How Can Regulated Businesses Strengthen and Simplify Compliance?

Robust Monitoring & Reporting Systems

To enforce environmental regulations, the EPA heavily relies on facilities to accurately self-report, meaning they must have highly capable monitoring, analysis, and reporting systems. For instance, businesses need to be capable of tracking the environmental metrics prescribed by various EPA regulations and have that data accessible within a system that aligns with EPA reporting interfaces and requirements.

Integrate Permit & Compliance Monitoring with Action Item Tracking

Regulated facilities should also establish systems for automating action item assignment and status tracking when events such as permit exceedances, waste accumulation amounts or times are surpassed, or reporting deadlines are approaching. By automating permit actions and other compliance action item assignments, you’ll be able to not only quickly respond to these events, but anticipate them and adjust operations to ensure you stay in compliance.

Perform Applicability Analysis Regularly

EPA regulations are highly complex, and state environmental requirements can vary from federal standards. To ensure your business is maintaining compliance with all applicable regulations, perform an applicability analysis regularly. Unless you have an in-house compliance and legal team to perform this analysis for you, consider utilizing compliance consultants and regulatory content providers.

By continuously analyzing, assessing, and improving environmental compliance, your organization will strengthen your overall environmental management program and, in turn, Environmental Social Governance (ESG) performance.

VelocityEHS Can Help!

Penalties for non-compliance are only going up and even a single violation can quickly turn into a significant financial blow that could sink your business. VelocityEHS offers a comprehensive suite of EHS & ESG software solutions that make it easier to manage compliance with a wide range of EHS regulations, helping you to avoid penalties for non-compliance and protect worker health and safety, and the environment.

Our Environmental Compliance Solution, part of the VelocityEHS Accelerate® Platform, gives you advanced technology tools for monitoring, reporting, and maintaining compliance with a broad range of CAA, CWA, RCRA, EPCRA, and other environmental requirements while forming the foundation for an environmental management program rooted in continuous improvement principles.

Request a demo today to learn more about the VelocityEHS Accelerate® Platform’s range of EHS & ESG solutions and see how we can help you simplify compliance, automate complex and time-consuming compliance tasks, and build a safer and more sustainable workplace.

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There are many reasons to pursue an Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) program. Mandatory GHG emission disclosures are looming, investors are increasing the pressure placed on companies to begin or strengthen ESG initiatives, employees are gravitating toward companies that focus on social and environmental responsibility; the list goes on. ESG is still new and making a name for itself, as demonstrated by the fact that even at the recent Greenbiz conference, a few people came up to the VelocityEHS booth and asked what “ESG” stood for—keep in mind Greenbiz is “the premier annual event for sustainable business leaders!” But this might not come as a surprise to those who work in the EHS & ESG space.

Many who work in EHS, ESG, and sustainability roles are often working with small teams, maybe even a team of one, and most of their daily motivation comes from a place of passion whether it’s the safety of their workers, protecting the planet, or some other driver. While return on investment (ROI) is always going to be a key consideration for their organization, many of the professionals leading ESG efforts are probably not just in it for the money. They’re likely overworked, and yet, they show up despite their initiatives often being overlooked or misunderstood, making it difficult to get the necessary budget and headcount that may be needed to make progress toward EHS or sustainability goals to ultimately make a difference. How do you work around this? Especially when you’re competing with other departments for limited company resources and approvals. It all comes down to getting buy-in from those in leadership, in C-suite roles, or on the Board.

While several sessions at the Greenbiz conference alluded to the importance of finding your sustainability “champion” and getting buy-in from leadership, one panel really dug into HOW to find that champion or get leadership on board; the panel was titled, “Guidance from Senior Leaders Who ‘Get It’”.

Five Key Takeaways to Help You get Leadership Buy-in to ESG & Sustainability Initiatives

1. Align ESG and Sustainability Goals with Company Initiatives. While ESG might be exciting and important to you and from a marketing perspective, leadership likely won’t care that your company is simply doing ESG. Your ESG strategy needs to relate to the business and investor strategy. Break it into digestible pieces that demonstrate value creation and lowered risk. For example, presenting ESG initiatives that will save the company money or help retain talent are tangible things that someone outside the sustainability space will understand more.
2. Know Your Audience. Do your homework to find out who’s in the C-suite, boardroom, etc. Understand that these people probably don’t know about the ins and outs of ESG & sustainability, so you’ll need to translate it into their language. For example, the CFO needs to understand value, whereas the General Council needs to understand and evaluate risk. Develop your presentations accordingly and keep your arguments as succinct as possible as you prepare to share with leadership. As the subject matter expert, you need to do the hard work, so once you have someone’s attention, it’s easy for them to endorse the idea(s) and understand it enough that they’re able to send it up the hierarchy.
3. Understand ESG and Politics. Understand that leaders might only have exposure to ESG based on what they see and hear on the news, so you might need to level-set what it actually means to the company. ESG can seem political, so avoid focusing on that and focus on the drivers for the organization. You can (and should) acknowledge the political aspects but reframe that while leaders may disagree with specific aspects of ESG (or the media framing of those aspects), here’s why it will help the bottom line for the company. Do your work in connecting ESG to the business strategy and basing your advocacy on data, because there’s no arguing with good results. Financial and operational performance are universal to business, so connect ESG to them where you can.
4. Focus on the Long Game. Whether they’re in the C-suite, the Board, or investors, leaders are focused on the long term, so they need to understand that if they want the company to be around in 50+ years, they need to incorporate sustainability. While there are several reasons for this, start by making it simple. For example, maybe the organization relies on resources that are threatened by climate change, or which will be affected by market shifts toward less carbon-intensive raw materials. Businesses may quite literally not run in 50 years without making more sustainable choices now, so they need to start paying attention.
5. Engage Employees. Unlock employee energy and get them excited about the initiatives you’re looking to pursue. If leadership notices this level of employee engagement throughout the company, they may see additional urgency in pursuing ESG initiatives.

The one important thing to keep in mind when it comes to fleshing out these ideas and putting them into action is that data is key. Let’s repeat that, data is key. To create a sustainability culture, you need to turn your ideas into strategy, and clean, reliable data is essential for a well-informed strategy. Good data will help you create the foundation you need so you can take action and build your arguments around the five ideas listed above.

VelocityEHS Is Here to Help!

Data collection and management might sound daunting, but VelocityEHS has resources and software solutions to help! Our ESG solution, part of our VelocityEHS Accelerate ® Platform, is designed by subject matter experts to help you build your ESG strategy from the ground up. From determining what’s material to your stakeholders (like the Boards, and C-suites) using a materiality assessment, to collecting the data points and utility information you need for GHG emissions reporting, and tracking and reporting other metrics you’ll need to track to build your ESG and Sustainability arguments, we can help. Get in touch today to learn more and get the support you need.

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Welcome to the fifth and final installment of our series, “Introduction to Hazardous Waste Management,” in which we’ll discuss the importance of waste reporting and waste minimization toward maintaining compliance with hazardous waste regulations and pursuing EHS/ESG maturity. In case you missed the previous installments, check out Part One to find out how to determine if your waste is hazardous, Part Two for a primer on how to determine your generator status and associated compliance obligations, Part Three for an overview of managing hazardous wastes on-site, and Part Four for a discussion of generator pre-transport and manifest requirements.

If you’re all caught up, let’s dive right into the fundamentals of hazardous waste reporting.

Managing Your Waste Reporting

Reporting will be one of your most important tasks, because so much of compliance and waste minimization depends on getting it right. You’ll need to focus on both regulatory-driven reporting, as well as internal reporting on the status and progress of your organization’s waste management practices.

Regulatory-Driven Hazardous Waste Reporting

In a previous installment of this blog series, we discussed the different regulatory requirements for each of the three classes of hazardous waste generators. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) requires large quantity generators (LQGs) to submit a biennial hazardous waste report (HWR) summarizing information about off-site shipments of hazardous waste during the previous calendar year. Federal EPA does not require small quantity generators (SQGs) to complete and submit biennial reports, but many states do. If your facility is an SQG, be sure to check the requirements in the state(s) where you operate.

Information in the HWR includes:

• Facility’s EPA ID Number;
• Facility’s name and address;
• Quantity and nature of hazardous waste generated, including EPA waste codes;
• Whether the generator treated, disposed or recycled any hazardous waste on-site, and if so, the management method codes used;
• Whether the generator sent the hazardous waste offsite for recycling, treatment, storage, or disposal; and
• The EPA ID numbers of treatment, storage and disposal facilities (TSDF) that received your hazardous wastes

The image below shows a section of the HWR.

Of course, the HWR is only one report a hazardous waste generator may potentially need to submit. Other reports include:

• Exception report: RCRA requires LQGs to submit an Exception Report to the EPA Regional Administrator for the Region in which the generator is located if the Administrator has not received a copy of the manifest with the handwritten signature of the owner or operator of the designated facility within 45 days of the date the initial transporter accepted the waste. SQGs who do not receive a final, signed copy of the manifest back within 60 days must also file an exception report. State requirements may be more stringent than these federal requirements, so don’t forget to check your state EPA authority to ensure you’re aware of your obligations. The Exception Report must include:

1. 1. A legible copy of the manifest for which the generator lacks confirmation of delivery; and
   2. A cover letter signed by the generator or their authorized representative explaining the efforts taken to locate the hazardous waste and the results of those efforts.

• Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reporting: The regulatory obligation to complete and submit an annual TRI report (also commonly referred to as a “Form R” report) comes from chemical management regulations under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) rather than RCRA hazardous waste regulations. Many generators of hazardous waste would also have TRI reporting responsibilities, and if so, would need to complete the report each year by July 1 for the previous calendar year and include data such as amounts of wastes shipped offsite, amounts of wastes treated on-site (if any), and names of TSDFs that received waste shipments.

As we discussed in another previous installment of this series, EPA issued a proposed rule earlier this year to revise aspects of the hazardous waste manifest form, as well as to seek stakeholder input on whether to integrate the electronic manifesting (e-Manifest) system with various hazardous waste reporting requirements and how such integration might work. As of this writing, we have yet to see what type of reporting integration EPA will pursue once they sort through public comments, analyze feedback, and issue a final rulemaking.

Internal Waste Reporting Practices

While regulatory-driven reporting is important, pursuit of waste management best practices means going beyond the regulations. This is especially true if you’re seeking alignment with voluntary environmental management standards like ISO 14001 or ESG reporting frameworks like SASB or GRI. You need deeper analysis of the wastes you generate, whether hazardous or nonhazardous, where you’re generating them, where you’re shipping them, and how much it’s costing you. Most of all, you need easy ways of sharing this information with your team members so you can establish the common understanding of challenges and successes needed to drive better performance.

Modern Environmental Compliance software can help here, by facilitating monthly reporting on waste by waste type and quantity, monitoring of waste shipment transit times and documentation of contractor communications. You also can manage waste costs and rebates from a central location, and analyze costs by time, type of waste, or vendor.

Developing Waste Minimization Programs

EPA defines waste minimization as “the reduction, to the extent feasible, in the amount of hazardous waste generated prior to any treatment, storage, or disposal of the waste.” In the instructions for the HWR, EPA further explains that minimization includes any source reduction or recycling activity undertaken by a generator that results in the reduction of total volume or quantity of hazardous waste, the reduction of toxicity of hazardous waste or both, “as long as the reduction is consistent with the goal of minimizing present and future threats to human health and the environment.”

Waste minimization strategies include:

• Source reduction: This method, also known as pollution prevention (P2), involves reducing or eliminating the generation of waste at the source, usually by reducing the amounts of chemicals that become hazardous wastes through production processes. Examples of source reduction include replacement of lead-containing alloys in solders, and replacement of lower flash point cleaning solvents with solvents that have flash points above 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which would not be RCRA-defined ignitable wastes after use.
• Recycling. Business leaders can use recycling when direct source reduction strategies like replacement of formulation components is not feasible. “Recycling” is a broad term that encompasses the reuse of materials in either original or altered forms rather than disposing of them as wastes. For example, if you have used solvent, you may be able to reuse it (potentially even more than once) rather than simply discarding it. This reuse reduces the amount of waste solvent generated at any one time.
• Recovery. There are a couple of key types of recovery. In materials recovery, we take a used material that we can no longer directly reuse and process it in some way to generate a usable product once again. In energy recovery, we either directly use a hazardous waste as a source of energy or treat it to produce a usable energy source.

The latter two categories come with important additional considerations. First, EPA has created certain exclusions intended to encourage recycling of hazardous waste and provides a useful summary at its page “Regulatory Exclusions and Alternative Standards for the Recycling of Materials, Solid Wastes and Hazardous Wastes.” Also, keep in mind that if you choose to do energy recovery on-site you’ll have additional regulatory obligations. For example, operators of units burning hazardous wastes for energy recovery would need to comply with operating standards for units burning hazardous wastes for energy recovery in 40 CFR part 266 subpart H and would need to meet Maximum Available Control Technology (MACT) air emissions standards.

Waste minimization is not always simply a “nice-to-have,” because it can sometimes be a regulatory requirement. Federal RCRA regulations require all large quantity generators (LQGs) to have a formal waste minimization program in place, while requiring small quantity generators (SQGs) to make a “good faith effort” to reduce hazardous waste generation. There’s no corresponding requirement for very small quantity generators (VSQGs), but it’s also important to remember that having waste minimization programs in place is a often a necessary strategy for staying a VSQG.

This is an important example of how waste minimization can be a valuable strategy for maintaining stability and predictability of our regulatory compliance obligations. A secondary benefit is the reduction of costs associated with management and shipping of hazardous wastes. These benefits explain the growing attractiveness of the “exiting RCRA” concept— that is, reducing hazardous waste generation to levels where RCRA regulatory compliance is no longer a significant burden. Companies that find methods to reduce the volume or toxicity of hazardous waste can significantly reduce their regulatory burdens, better protect their workers and the environment, and improve ESG and sustainability.

Still, company leaders need to understand the difference between recycling and “sham recycling.” EPA recognized the importance of this distinction enough to create a page detailing the differences, and laying out the characteristics of legitimate recycling, which include:

1. Legitimate recycling involves a hazardous secondary material that provides a useful contribution to the recycling process or to a product or intermediate of the recycling process;
2. The recycling process must produce a valuable product or intermediate;
3. The generator and recycler must manage the hazardous secondary material as a valuable commodity while it is under their control; and
4. The product of the recycling process is analogous to a legitimate product or intermediate.

Sham recycling deviates from these criteria in several ways and may include situations in which the “recycled” secondary material is ineffective or only marginally effective for the claimed use, or the generator uses more of it than needed to artificially boost the total amount recycled.

Although we’ve seen that EPA uses the term “waste minimization” to refer specifically to hazardous waste, all facilities can benefit from better general waste management practices. For example, EPA maintains a page called “Managing and Reducing Wastes: A Guide for Commercial Buildings” to help facility managers, building owners, tenants and other stakeholders improve non-hazardous waste management in their buildings, reduce costs and enhance sustainability.

Better Hazardous Waste Management Supports Your EHS to ESG Journey

Our discussion of waste minimization practices above may have us thinking about a connection to sustainability. After all, waste minimization is about reducing risks to human health and the environment, and about reducing regulatory burdens and compliance costs of managing hazardous waste. That’s why these types of programs, along with better environmental management in general, can help get us on the road to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) maturity.

This is especially true if we model our environmental programs on the guidance in ISO 14001, the international standard for environmental management systems. One of the ways the Standard can help is by urging organizations to identify its most significant environmental aspects (Sec 6.1.2), which for an LQG would include hazardous waste. This type of “aspects and impacts” analysis is essentially a form of risk assessment and overlaps with the concept of a materiality assessment, which is a filter to determine the risks and opportunities most important to a company and its stakeholders. From there, you can select and manage relevant objectives for your environmental management system.

Setting Good Objectives, Targets and Programs

Let’s see how this works by looking at the common way of thinking about objectives as defined by ISO 14001, in a system of “Objectives, Targets and Programs.”

Objectives 

Objectives are just goals that you’d like to meet in the future. In other words, when you’re writing an objective, even though you should already be thinking about how you’re going to measure and verify them, you’re not going to get that granular yet.

Targets

Targets are the point where granularity comes in. Setting targets involves determining specific verifiable measures to document that you’re meeting your objectives and meeting the chosen performance criteria.

Programs 

Programs are the specific methods and strategies you’re going to use within your environmental management system to achieve your objectives and targets.

An organization selects Objectives, Targets and Programs based on its assessment of material impacts. For example, suppose our facility is a large quantity generator (LQG) because of the volume of corrosive waste generated per month. There are administrative costs associated with LQG reporting we wouldn’t have to incur if we could get our generator status down, say, 20%, and become an SQG. Additionally, this specific waste is an organic peroxide and requires additional treatment, such as stabilization, resulting in greater disposal costs than many other waste streams. For purposes of simplicity, let’s focus on financial costs as our most material consideration.

Now we can create potential Objectives, Targets and Programs based on our materiality assessment:

Of course, the table above is a simplification because a company can have multiple programs supporting a single target. For example, this company may choose additional programs based on other waste minimization strategies, such as circular reuse of organic peroxide product to reduce the amount that becomes a waste.

Introducing the ESG Pyramid

Another benefit of using ISO 14001 to shape your waste and other environmental management practices is that you’ll more easily build programs that meet your present needs while anticipating future progress. For example, Section 6.1.3 of ISO 14001 prompts organizations to determine their regulatory compliance obligations, including all the RCRA requirements discussed in this series, and to maintain documentation of compliance status, which would include records and reports required by RCRA or needed for better waste management practices. Sections 4.1 through 4.3 of ISO 14001 also address the need for the organization to consider the needs and expectations of interested parties, the scope of the organization, and its internal and external context – considerations which can lead to evaluations of key ESG elements such as existing disclosure frameworks and expectations of the community in which the business operates.

In other words, this perspective can help a company establish a resilient, adaptable management system that evolves in step with its EHS/ESG maturity level. It helps establish a firm foundation in the basics of EHS management, like hazardous waste reporting and documentation, upon which they can start building ESG programs for waste reduction and sustainability. The “ESG pyramid” below shows the relationship between EHS and ESG management.

Modern ESG software can help you complete the basic environmental management tasks at the base of the pyramid such as waste reporting, management of waste profiles and tracking of manifests, while also facilitating completion of materiality assessment surveys of key stakeholders to identify the issues most important to your ESG progress.

Looking for Additional Resources?

If you’re looking for more information about how to improve your waste management practices, we have you covered.

If you’d like to get a better handle on basic hazardous waste management responsibilities for your generator status, download our guide Cradle-to-Grave: Fundamentals of Hazardous Waste Management.

As discussed above, many generators of hazardous waste also are subject to EPA TRI/Form R reporting requirements and would need to quantify and provide details about the TRI-reportable chemicals shipped as wastes during the reporting year. Our on-demand webinar EPA Toxic Release Inventory Reporting: How to Ensure Compliance can help you better understand TRI reporting applicability and the benefits of EHS/ESG software for reporting TRI required information like hazardous waste release, recycling and shipment details.

EHS managers eager to learn more about how an EHS/ESG management system patterned on ISO 14001 can help them establish a solid foundation in environmental compliance and advance their progress toward ESG maturity should download our guide An Overview of ISO 14001: Using the Standard to Improve Environmental Management. You can also watch our on-demand webinar on the same subject.

And as always, please feel free to follow us on LinkedIn, where you’ll get the latest updates on the worlds of EHS and ESG, including news about regulations and industry developments that will help you continue your career development as an EHS professional.

Let VelocityEHS Help!

The Waste Management capabilities included with VelocityEHS Environmental Compliance Solutions help you simplify every facet of hazardous waste management including tracking of hazardous waste manifests, generation of EPA-required hazardous waste reports (HWRs), reporting to support internal waste minimization efforts, and maintain all of your waste profiles in a single, easily accessible system. You’ll also be able to report on waste by type and quantity, monitor waste shipment transit time, and analyze your costs by time, type of waste, or vendor.

If you’re ready to see how VelocityEHS can help streamline your hazardous waste management program, Request a Demo or contact us today for more information about how to do EHS and ESG right.

The post Introduction to Hazardous Waste Management, Part Five: Waste Reporting and Minimization appeared first on VelocityEHS.

Hazardous waste management is a detailed process from start to finish, presenting multiple challenges for even experienced EHS professionals. To help you understand the fundamentals of hazardous waste management, VelocityEHS is excited to present our new resource, Cradle-to-Grave: Fundamentals of Hazardous Waste Management!  

Download the Guide!

Inside the Guide You’ll Find: 

The Hazardous Waste Lifecycle 

Hazardous wastes pose a significant threat to human health, safety, and the environment. Some, dubbed “forever chemicals” like PFAS & PCBs, can take thousands of years to decompose to a non-toxic state and others can remain hazardous indefinitely. That’s why regulators like EPA require generators to assume responsibility for hazardous wastes from “cradle-to-grave”. However, there are a lot of points in-between where risks can arise. It’s important to understand the pathways that hazardous wastes follow and identify steps where wastes can be reduced, recycled or re-used. Our guide maps out the hazardous waste lifecycle in simple terms.   

Hazardous Waste Statistics 

Did you know that in 2019, 34.9 million tons of hazardous waste were generated in the US by just 23,700 facilities? And that’s just the companies that generate more than 1,000 kg (2,200 lbs) of non-acute hazardous waste or more than 1 kg (2.2 lbs) of acute hazardous waste per calendar year (large quantity generators—LQGs). That’s the weight of 97 fully-laden very large crude carriers (VLCCs) every year, and the total annual hazardous waste generation in the US is likely even greater than that. This is just one of the interesting facts highlighted in our new guide that underscore the importance of effective hazardous waste management.   

Hazardous Waste Generator Requirements 

Do you generate hazardous wastes? Do you know your hazardous waste generator status, and what’s required based on that status? Our guide will also help you to determine your generator status (VSQG/SQG/LQG) and what’s required for each type of generator under EPA RCRA regulations.   

Download the Guide! 

Want to Know More About Waste Management, VelocityEHS Can Help! 

The VelocityEHS Accelerate^® platform includes global enterprise ESG Software that is powerful enough to meet the GHG and environmental compliance management needs of companies of any size. Our best-in-class ESG Software includes intuitive hazardous waste management capabilities that give you a comprehensive system for managing every aspect of your waste program including RCRA hazardous waste reporting and compliance, shipment manifesting, TRI reporting automation, cost and rebate tracking, EPA waste code assignment, storage time tracking, and automated alerts to help you stay on top of all of your hazardous waste management action items.  

Contact us or Request a Demo today to learn how VelocityEHS can help you. 

The post VelocityEHS Introduces New Guide Illustrating the Fundamentals of Hazardous Waste Management appeared first on VelocityEHS.

You might have missed it among the many other proposed regulations that have come out recently, but EPA recently published a significant, new proposed rule that would require many facilities to develop plans to respond to potential “worst case discharges” of chemicals at their facility. The proposed rule builds upon EPA’s authority established in the Clean Water Act (CWA) and will potentially create new compliance obligations for a large number of facilities across many different industry sectors.

In what follows, we’ll take a look at the CWA proposed rule and its background, and provide some key takeaways to help you prepare.

Background of the CWA Proposed Rule

The CWA, which establishes the basic structure for the EPA to regulate discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States and regulating quality standards for surface waters, was first enacted in 1972, and amended by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. Section 311(j)(5) of the CWA established EPA’s authority to issue regulations which require facility operators to prepare and submit plans “for responding, to the maximum extent practicable, to a worst-case discharge, and to a substantial threat of such a discharge, of oil or a hazardous substance (emphasis added).” The full list of chemicals considered to be hazardous substances under the CWA and the associated reportable quantities (RQs) is in Table 117.3. The table below contains the most common CWA-listed hazardous substances from 2010 to 2019, based on National Response Center (NRC) data.

EPA had addressed the first part of its CWA-given authority toward preventing discharges of “oil or a hazardous substance,” but not the second part. The first part happened in 1994, when EPA issued regulations for worst case discharges of oil under 40 CFR part 112, which comprise the basis of Spill Prevention Countermeasure and Control (SPCC) requirements. Still, that left many facilities that store CWA-listed hazardous substances unaddressed by EPA regulations, at least before this proposed rule.

The impetus for EPA to finally address these facilities came from a lawsuit initiated in March 2019 by the Natural Resources Defense Council, on behalf of the advocacy groups Clean Water Action and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform. The suit alleged violations of the CWA 311(j)(5)(A)(i) and the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), and maintained that because EPA had not issued regulations requiring non-transportation-related facilities which could cause “substantial harm” to waterways to plan, prevent, mitigate and respond to worst-case spills of hazardous substances, they had not lived up to their responsibilities under the CWA.

The plaintiffs and EPA resolved the litigation by entering into a consent decree on March 12, 2020. The consent decree required EPA to produce and sign a notice of proposed rulemaking within two years (or by March 12, 2022) pertaining to the issuance of the CWA Hazardous Substance Worst Case Discharge Planning Regulations for non-transportation-related onshore facilities. Additionally, per the consent decree, EPA would then have to issue a final rule within an additional two and a half years, or 30 months after publication of the proposed rule. This is an important point to recall later, when we discuss the timetable of what to expect next.

EPA’s Proposed CWA Rule

EPA has issued a new proposed rule called “Clean Water Act Hazardous Substance Worst Case Discharge Planning Regulations.” EPA Administrator Michael Regan signed the proposed rule on March 10, and the rule was published in the Federal Register on March 28, 2022. The signing and publication of the proposed rule satisfy the requirements of the March 12, 2020 consent decree.

The proposed rule would require facilities that could reasonably be expected to cause substantial harm to the environment, based on their locations and chemical storage, to prepare and submit CWA-listed hazardous substance Facility Response Plans (FRP) for worst-case discharges.

Applicability of Proposed CWA Rule

According to EPA’s proposed rule, applicability is based on the following criteria:

• Threshold quantity. The first step in assessing applicability is to determine whether a facility meets or exceeds the container capacity for a CWA-listed hazardous substance onsite at or above a threshold quantity. The proposed rule defines the threshold amount as 10,000 times the RQ for each hazardous substance. The RQs range from one to 5,000 pounds, and are listed in the federal regulation at 40 CFR §117.3. The storage capacity is defined as “the total aggregate container capacity for each CWA hazardous substance present at all locations within the entire facility at any one time.” The proposed rule defines a “container” as “any device or portable device in which a CWA hazardous substance is processed, stored, used, transported, treated, disposed of, or otherwise handled.”
• Location. If the facility manager determines that a CWA-listed chemical stored at the site exceeds the applicable threshold, they must then determine whether the facility is within one-half mile to navigable water or a conveyance to navigable water. It’s a good idea to remember that EPA’s definition of “navigable water” is famously broad. As a rule of thumb, if there’s any body of water within 0.5 miles of your facility, you’ll most likely be subject to the proposed requirements if you meet the threshold applicability described above.
• Substantial harm. If facility meets the above two conditions, the owner or operator next determines whether the facility meets any of the four substantial harm criteria, which are:

1. The ability to adversely impact a public water system;
2. the ability to cause injury to fish, wildlife, and sensitive environments (FWSE);
3. the ability to cause injury to public receptors; and/or
4. having had a reportable discharge of a CWA hazardous substance within the last five years

EPA has provided an applicability flowchart in Figure 1 within the Federal Register notice for the proposed rule, which is reproduced below.

It should be noted that according to the proposed rule, an EPA Regional Administrator can also require a facility manager to develop CWA hazardous substance FRPs based on consideration of site-specific factors, regardless of whether the facility meets the criteria described above.

Requirements for Facilities Subject to EPA’s Proposed Rule

What information needs to be included in the FRP? According to the proposed rule, CWA hazardous substance FRP components will include:

• facility information, including the facility name; latitude and longitude; street address (including city, state, and zip code; telephone number, and information regarding the facility’s location described in a manner that would aid reviewers and responders in locating the facility;
• owner or operator information, including preferred contact method;
• hazard evaluation, to ensure that in the event of a worst-case discharge, owners or operators will have pre-identified areas in which adverse impacts to human health and the environment could occur;
• reportable discharge history, for any discharges of CWA-listed hazardous substances above the reportable quantity (RQ);
• response personnel and equipment, including information about the type of equipment at the facility, its location, response times, and testing requirements;
• evidence of contracts or other approved means to ensure the availability of personnel and equipment;
• notification lists, including the identity and contact information of individuals or organizations to be notified in the event of a discharge;
• discharge information, including records of past discharges, the CWA hazardous substance name and quantity discharged, the possible areas and receptors affected and potential routes of transport, distance(s) to nearby waterways and conveyances, data on the characteristics of the CWA hazardous substance and other hazardous substances in proximity, and any other information that may be helpful to responders and the public;
• personnel roles and responsibilities, including the identification and description of responsibilities and the activities that personnel have been trained in and are qualified to conduct in the event of a worst-case discharge;
• response equipment information, including information about the type of equipment at the facility, its location, response times, and testing requirements;
• facility-wide evacuation plan, to evacuate parts of the facility at a high risk of exposure in the event of a discharge;
• a description of discharge detection systems used;
• response actions to mitigate the discharge;
• disposal plans, such as how and where the facility intends to recover, reuse, decontaminate, treat, and/or dispose of materials after a discharge has taken place, and plans for temporary storage of recovered material;
• a description of containment measures for potential discharges, such as drainage systems and spill response equipment such as booms and weirs;
• training and exercise procedures, which may involve existing training for other applicable regulations such as OSHA HAZWOPER requirements in 29 CFR 1910.120;
• self-inspections (see additional details below); and
• coordination activities with local emergency responders.

You can find a full discussion of the proposed requirements in each of the above areas within the proposed rule, but let’s park on self-inspection requirements for a moment, because those will play a central part in a facility’s procedures to prevent a chemical release.

The proposed rule states that a facility self-inspection program needs to include a checklist of things to inspect, and a method of recording each inspection, the date it occurred, and its findings. The proposed rule would also require facility managers to maintain inspection records for 5 years. The proposal states that EPA will be using the public comments to solicit stakeholder feedback on alternative self-inspection and documentation methods. But it’s safe to assume that once EPA’s eventual final rule appears, it will still have self-inspection requirements.

Facility managers subject to the requirements described above would need to complete and submit FRPs for their site(s) to EPA within 12 months of the effective date of the final rule – a timetable we won’t fully understand, of course, until EPA actually publishes a final rule. Facility managers would then need to review and update their plan every five years, or within 60 days of a change at or outside the facility that impacts the potential to cause substantial harm to the environment.

It should be noted that this proposed rule applies to onshore facilities (meaning any facilities situated on unsubmerged land within the United States), per the terms of the 2020 consent decree. EPA is using the proposed rule to solicit comments and supporting data on whether they should also address offshore facilities, other than vessels.

What’s Next For EPA’s Proposed CWA Rule?

While the Federal Register notice indicates that EPA will be accepting public comments on the proposed rule until May 27, 2022, their summary page for the rulemaking states that they’ll be accepting comments until July 26, 2022.

After that, EPA will need to sort through all of the feedback and determine how to account for it during the process of developing a final rule. As of this writing, there are 2,693 public comments, so the process will take a while, but remember, EPA doesn’t have an infinite amount of time. To comply with the terms of the 2020 consent decree, EPA will need to issue a final rulemaking within 30 months of publication of the proposed rule, which would put the deadline in September 2024.

Key Takeaways on EPA’s Proposed CWA Rule

As mentioned, we should assume that EPA will be issuing a final rulemaking within the next 30 months. Managers of affected establishments would need to be prepared.

Here are some high-level takeaways:

It starts with chemical management. A big part of determining if the proposed rule applies to your facility depends on knowing the identities and storage quantities of chemicals in your inventory, so you can see if any CWA-listed chemicals exceed the applicability threshold, and determine “worst case” release scenarios. Look into ways to make your safety data sheet (SDS) library and your chemical hazard information more accessible.

Risk management takes center stage. Facility managers subject to the proposed requirements would need to conduct hazard assessments for the CWA-listed chemicals in their inventory, identifying potential harm from releases and the controls needed to reduce risks. In other words, you need better visibility of risk pathways – the connection between potential causes to an unplanned event, and then the connections between the event and its potential consequences. You also need effective ways to select and implement controls to reduce the potential for a release (preventive controls), to reduce the severity of impact (mitigative controls) or identify when a release has occurred (detective controls).

Inspections will be more important than ever. If your facility is subject to these proposed requirements and needs to implement an FRP, one of the most important required elements will be self-inspections.  You’ll need an easy way to develop and deploy site-specific inspection checklists, and to be able to access inspection records to confirm completion or status of findings.

You’ll need visibility of your discharges. Remember, the proposed rule acts upon EPA’s authority under the CWA, and is primarily focused on preventing discharges of hazardous chemicals to water. EPA is proposing that your FRP would need to include records of past discharges, including the chemical involved and the quantity released. Modern environmental compliance software can help by recording and analyzing sample data from all of your discharge points, performing complex calculations about quantities of contaminants, and keeping all of your discharge data accessible in one place.

Sharpen your waste management practices. According to EPA’s proposal, your FRP would need to describe how you’ll be managing and disposing wastes generated from discharges and cleanups. That means you’ll need better visibility of your waste profiles and manifests, so there’s no ambiguity about what you’re doing and whether you’re in compliance with applicable waste regulations.

We’ll share more information about the proposed CWA rule as developments unfold. Don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn to make sure you stay in the loop!

Let VelocityEHS Help!

Our Safety solution gives you the insights into your chemical inventory you need, with ability to easily access SDSs and associated chemical hazard information. You’ll also improve your emergency response plans with access to exposure support for chemicals 24/7 via a hotline, and you’ll be able to develop and deploy site-specific checklists for your chemical storage locations.

Using our Operational Risk solution, you’ll be able to conduct hazard assessments for your chemicals, and readily map out risk pathways and their associated preventive, mitigative and detective controls.

Finally, the Environmental Compliance capability within our ESG solution can help you better track your water quality compliance and have information about your discharges, including the quantity (load) and concentration of CWA-listed contaminants, in one place.

As always, please feel free to contact us anytime to learn more about how we can help you become safer and more sustainable.

The post EPA’s Proposed Rule on Clean Water Act “Worst Case Planning”: What You Need to Know appeared first on VelocityEHS.

Many small businesses generate hazardous waste and must comply with federal hazardous waste management regulations. As a small business how are you supposed to know what hazardous waste you are producing and how are you supposed to manage it?

Recently, Brad Micheel, P.E., Senior Solution Strategist, Environmental for VelocityEHS hosted a live webinar where he addressed waste management for small quantity generators (SQG), which are companies producing between 100 and 1,000 kg (220 to 2,200 lbs) of hazardous waste per month. In this webinar, he helps with how to identify waste, what is required for SQG waste reporting, and how to expand waste management programs.

Don’t worry if you miss the live event because it is now available on-demand!

What Is Hazardous Waste?

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines hazardous waste as, “a waste with properties that make it dangerous or capable of having a harmful effect on human health or the environment.” To know if your company is producing hazardous waste, you first need to know which operations generate waste, and understand and apply EPA’s process for determining if waste is hazardous.

According to the EPA, Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Section 261.3, describes the hazardous waste identification regulatory program. The EPA also provides a waste identification process to help identify what is hazardous waste.

Requirements for Waste Reporting for SQG

Once you’ve identified hazardous wastes, you must follow numerous requirements to properly dispose of the waste.

You must prepare manifests for each hazardous waste shipment, and you have the option of using electronic manifests. What this means is that each manifest is a key part of the tracking system. These forms have information on the type and quantity of the waste being transported, instructions for handling the waste, and signature lines for all parties involved in the disposal process. Each party handling the manifest signs it and retains a copy for themselves ensuring accountability in the transportation and disposal process.

Pre-transport requirements must be met in accordance with the Department of Transportation (DoT), such as packaging, labeling, marking, and placarding.

RCRA requires generators to keep records of supporting hazardous waste determinations, a copy of each signed manifest, and exception reports for at least 3 years. In addition to regular reporting requirements, there are alternative standards for episodic events, an activity that does not normally occur during generator operations, resulting in hazardous waste.

Incorporating Hazardous Waste Reporting into an Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Program

Sustainability reporting standards and frameworks request information regarding an organization’s waste program. Utilizing the data and reporting gathered in your waste program is an important and easy next step in implementing an ESG program. There are several ways to take waste management reporting to build an ESG program.

Learn all about waste management reporting best practices and how to use it in an ESG program! Watch the full webinar on-demand now!

Want to Know More About Waste Management, VelocityEHS Can Help!

VelocityEHS offers ESG Software that can meet any company’s needs, no matter its size. Our best-in-class ESG Software simplifies programs to address climate concerns and maintain environmental compliance. We can help manage your air emissions, water usage, Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and waste. Contact us today to learn more about our waste management software.

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