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Oregon

Project Summary

Project Title : Environmental Management Systems for Small Local Governments

Location : State of Oregon

Applicant : Oregon Department of Environmental Quality

Contact:
Pete Dalke; ODEQ NW Region; 2020 SW 4th Ave, Suite 400; Portland, OR 97201; Phone: (503) 229-5588; Fax: (503) 229-6952; Email: pete.dalke@state.or.us

The Environmental Management Systems for Small Local Governments Project will fund a one-time project to develop technical assistance tools to help small Oregon communities better achieve and maintain compliance with federal environmental laws. The tools will be developed in the context of the seventeen (17) components of an Environmental Management System (EMS). The use of EMSs for infrastructure planning, operations and maintenance is "cutting edge" in local government operations of all sizes. Those implementing an EMS are reporting operational efficiencies, cost savings and improved community relationships as well as compliance and local environmental health improvements. These same advantages need to be made available to small local governments (population 10,000 and under) that are particularly limited by technical, administrative and financial capacity to develop and implement an EMS.

This project is proposed to develop, implement and promote a viable EMS model for "next generation" environmental protection in small communities. The project supports all four of EPA's Innovation Strategy elements. In particular, element (2) Focus on priority environmental issues - Restore and maintain water quality, and Reduce the cost of water and wastewater infrastructure, and element (3) Diversify environmental protection tools and approaches, are addressed by the project.

The tools to be developed will complement Oregon's efforts, through the Environmental Partnerships for Oregon Communities program, to offer small communities assistance and help to develop flexible compliance agreements. In addition to improving compliance, EMS demonstration projects will better enable beyond-compliance results and minimizing environmental impacts in these communities. The EMS models and examples from this project will be available for transfer to other states and U.S. territories.

It is expected that this project will be executed in cooperation with EPA-funded regulatory programs in Oregon and Zero Waste Alliance, an EMS Peer Local Resource Center that is partially funded by EPA.

Regulatory flexibility is potentially needed to implement the project. The project will enable ODEQ to explore ways to implement the EPA Guidance on the Use of Environmental Management Systems in Enforcement Settlements as Injunctive Relief and Supplemental Environmental Projects (June 12 2003) and the EPA draft Small Local Governments Compliance Assistance Policy (public comment period closed January 2 2004). DEQ will need to develop the internal framework necessary to exercise enforcement discretion when proposing, accepting and auditing an EMS under either policy.

The Director of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality endorses this project. The project is consistent with the agency's strategic plan, Strategic Directions, approved by the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission. Strategic Directions identifies small local governments as an important stakeholder group and a group that needs to take ownership of environmental and public health issues and participate in the identification of solutions.

Summary Budget Information

State: Oregon

Agency: Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ)

Project Title: Environmental Management Systems for Small Local Governments

<Budgetary Information Withheld by U.S. EPA>

In-kind contributions:

Contact:

Pre-proposal Narrative

Introduction

The use of an environmental management system (EMS) in local government infrastructure planning, operations and maintenance is "cutting edge" for local governments of all sizes. Local governments implementing an EMS are reporting efficiencies in operations, cost savings and improved community relationships as well as compliance and local environmental health improvements. These same advantages need to be made available to smaller local governments (population 10,000 and under) that are particularly limited by technical, administrative and financial capacity to develop and implement an EMS. This project is proposed to develop, demonstrate and promote a viable EMS model for "next generation" environmental protection in small communities. The project supports all four of EPA's Innovation Strategy elements. In particular, element (2) Focus on priority environmental issues - Restore and maintain water quality, and Reduce the cost of water and wastewater infrastructure, and element (3) Diversify environmental protection tools and approaches - Environmental Management Systems, are addressed by the project.

The importance of viable EMS demonstration projects for small local governments is three-fold. First, efficiency and cost savings are important for small communities. Small local governments that voluntarily want to develop an appropriate EMS for their operations need good, working models. Second, local governments faced with compliance issues and related penalties have the option of developing an EMS as a Supplemental Environmental Project. And third, EPA is proposing changes to its 1995 Policy on Flexible State Enforcement Responses to Small Community Violations (the Small Communities Policy ) . The changes proposed in the draft Small Local Governments Compliance Assistance Policy include EPA deferral to states' decisions to reduce or waive civil penalties for local governments with a population of less than 10,000 that enter into an enforceable agreement to correct violations and develop and implement environmental management systems for their governmental operations. In the latter two instances, where EPA's intent is to provide incentives for EMS development and implementation as an option for small local governments addressing compliance issues, on-the-ground EMS projects are needed to provide further guidance and demonstration that an EMS can be scaled appropriately and provide the anticipated benefits for both the community and the environment.

Through this project, DEQ would:

Project Schedule and Timeframe

The time period for this grant-funded project would be three years. The start date is upon award of project funding. The timeline and key activities are as follows:

Program Criteria

This project focuses on two of the priority environmental issues and diversified environmental protection tools identified in EPA's Innovation Strategy . Specifically:

This project will also support other Innovation Strategy elements by helping to STRENGTHEN EPA'S INNOVATION PARTNERSHIPS WITH STATES AND TRIBES, and FOSTER A MORE "INNOVATION-FRIENDLY" ORGANIZATION CULTURE in State agencies and local governments.

The project is cross-media by nature. The following regulatory programs will be involved and coordinated in this project:

Other activities that can be expected to be discussed as a part of a small local government EMS include water quantity (water rights), water conservation, drinking water source water protection, asbestos, Brownfields and local land use/comprehensive planning.

At this time, EMSs are generally "out of reach" for small local governments. EPA guidance is available but not always directly applicable to this subset of the local government sector. For example, better tailored guidance is needed beyond what is available in the " Environmental Management Systems: An Implementation Guide for Small and Medium Sized Organizations ". This project will work directly with EMS experts, local government administrators, technical assistance providers, higher education, regulators and others to develop a model EMS that can reasonably be implemented, all or in part, by communities under 10,000 population

The tools to be developed will complement Oregon's efforts, through the Environmental Partnerships for Oregon Communities (EPOC) program, to offer small communities direct technical assistance and help to develop flexible compliance agreements. The EPOC program participated with EPA in the development of the 1995 Small Communities Policy . Since then, EPOC has developed over twenty compliance orders with small communities following the Policy , and assisted over thirty additional communities with compliance issues. This work has facilitated timely returns to compliance and over $50 million in water and wastewater projects. This experience provides a solid foundation to build from in developing the "next generation" tools for small local government compliance assistance.

There have been several EPA sponsored EMS demonstration projects.  The value to Oregon DEQ of integrating these into the small government policy that the DEQ desires to develop will be important. This project will be coordinated with the Environmental Management Systems Local Resource Center, Zero Waste Alliance ( http://www.zerowaste.org/lrc Exit Disclaimer). The collaborative effort will build on the "lessons learned" from EMS experiences in larger Oregon local governments and elsewhere.

Future technical assistance contacts and compliance inspections will serve to document and quantify improvements in environmental outcomes. Greater environmental awareness, involvement and competency throughout the organizations will result in improved short-term and long-term compliance with wastewater and drinking water requirements at a minimum. The anticipated better relationships and communications with regulators and the community will also enhance the environmental performance, and reduce the impacts, of local government operations.

The benefits of an EMS for a small local government are expected to be similar to those realized for others that have implemented an EMS. These include:

Additional information and quantification of some of the benefits can be found at: http://www.zerowaste.org/lrc/nwpub1/EMS-SaveMoneyFINAL.pdf Exit Disclaimer

The goals for environmental improvement are to 1) enable "next generation" environmental protection by small local governments seeking EMSs, and 2) develop a model EMS that can facilitate this effort.

Indicators for the innovation project include:

DEQ will make the model EMS and each of the three community EMSs available at the DEQ and EPA websites and via the EMS Local Resource Centers, the Boise State Environmental Finance Center and participating Work Group members' websites.

An implementation progress report will be provided to DEQ within one year after EMSs are adopted by the participating communities.

Longer term results can be monitored as a part of future compliance inspections. As a part of this project, DEQ will develop guidance on the use of EMS as SEPs and the Small Local Government Compliance Assistance Policy. Use of EMS as a compliance assistance tool will be reported on as a part of DEQ's annual compliance and enforcement report.

The model small government EMS and the three small local government EMSs developed as a part of the project will be available for use as "next generation" tools for environmental protection and transferable to the local government sector in Oregon, other states, tribal governments, and U.S. territories. This sizable regulated universe includes: 81% of the incorporated cities in Oregon (195 of 240 cities) (League of Oregon Cities) and over 88% of American units of local governments have a population of 10,000 or less (U.S. Census Bureau).

The model EMS will also provide ODEQ and other states a reference point for using EMSs as a part of enforcement and compliance assistance policy, consistent with Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) guidance and the emerging Small Local Government Compliance Assistance Policy.

ODEQ staff involved with the project can potentially be available (subject to budget and state travel restrictions) to provide consultation and mentoring to other states, and for presentations to EPA staff and at appropriate conferences.


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