Intel
Final Project Agreement -- Introduction
I. INTRODUCTION
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA"), with the cooperation of State and local authorities, has initiated the Excellence in Leadership ("XL") Program to work with interested companies to develop innovative approaches for addressing environmental issues. See generally 60 Fed. Reg. 27282 (May 23, 1995). The XL Program encourages companies to come forward with new approaches that have the potential to advance environmental goals more effectively and efficiently than have been achieved using traditional regulatory tools.
The Intel Corporation ("Intel"), an early volunteer for the XL Program, has worked intensively with representatives of EPA, the State of Arizona, Maricopa County, the City of Chandler, and public stakeholders to develop a site-specific XL Project. The project focuses on Intel's 720-acre manufacturing site in Chandler, Arizona (the "Site" or the "Ocotillo Site"), a description of which is included in Attachment 1 to this Agreement. A new semiconductor wafer fabrication facility ("FAB 12") has been constructed and is operating on the Site, and additional semiconductor-related facilities may be built on the Site in the future.
Under the XL Project, a Site-wide environmental master plan has been developed, integrating both mandatory and voluntary environmental undertakings across all media--air, water, solid waste, and hazardous waste. Under the plan, Site-wide environmental goals for all media have been identified, and Intel has committed to provide public reports, in a consolidated and easily-accessed format, to track progress in meeting these goals. In developing the master plan, the XL Project stakeholders have sought to reduce unnecessary, burdensome and duplicative requirements within the constraints of existing law. Several important innovations have resulted, including the creation of a consolidated reporting form, an integrated emergency planning document, and a streamlined air permitting scheme.
In developing innovative approaches for addressing environmental issues at the Ocotillo Site, Intel has been guided by four key principles. First, the Company is committed to complying with all applicable statutory or regulatory requirements. The Company has worked with authorities at all levels, however, to apply current legal requirements in a more effective manner, and to supplement these requirements with additional environmental goals.
Second, the Company has sought to improve the transparency of its environmental performance by consolidating its commitments across all media in this Final Project Agreement ("FPA"), and by establishing an innovative reporting mechanism that allows information on all of these subjects to be publicly available in an integrated format. The Company has worked closely with all stakeholders, including interested members of the public, in developing these tools.
Third, the FPA identifies a single regulatory Agency, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality ("ADEQ"), as the coordinating Agency for the FPA. The identification of a primary point of reference to coordinate environmental issues arising at the Ocotillo Site under the FPA should enhance the effective administration of the FPA, and provide a model for future agreements of this type. This administrative approach is not intended to reduce or conflict with the existing jurisdiction or enforcement authority of participating governmental agencies. Rather, it is intended to streamline regulatory oversight where possible; coordinate approaches to any environmental issues that arise at the Ocotillo Site, including issues that may have cross-media impacts; and make it easier for the public to obtain non-proprietary information on Intel.
Fourth, and finally, the Company has sought to improve overall environmental performance by including protective new features in the traditional air permit required for the Site, and augmenting mandatory legal requirements with significant voluntary commitments. This fresh look at overall environmental performance has been accompanied by the commitment to reduce paperwork and other procedural burdens that do not provide value-added contributions to these aggressive environmental goals. The process has been a team effort involving regulatory authorities at all levels-City, County, State, and Federal-as well as members of the local community.
Examples of the types of special performance features described more fully in the FPA include:
- Air
- The air permit developed in connection with this FPA establishes Plant Site Emission Limits ("PSELs") which require Intel to keep air emissions below "major source" levels for all criteria pollutants, even if Intel expands the operations on the Site during the permit term.
- Modeling techniques for hazardous air pollutants have been used and will continue to be used to provide additional assurance that the relevant PSELs are protective for the neighboring community, and for employees and visitors to the Site.
- Under the FPA, Intel also has agreed to limit emissions below the PSELs to levels that are commensurate with production activities on the Site. Toward that end, Intel has committed to develop a production-based performance standard that will allow the public to track the Company's performance against this commitment.
- Extensive reporting and recordkeeping requirements based on mass balance and emissions factor evaluations have been established in the air permit and in this FPA to track actual emissions, and to evaluate the effects on air emissions of changes in operations at the facility.
- The air permit provides operational flexibility for Intel by preapproving changes in processes, and allowing the addition of new, semiconductor-related facilities at the Site, so long as PSELs and other requirements (e.g., reporting requirements) are satisfied.
- Water Use
- Intel commits to voluntarily minimize its consumption of fresh water by using treated city effluent water for the consumptive uses of cooling tower makeup and landscaping at the Ocotillo Site.
- The Company also commits to arrange for the treatment of its manufacturing effluent for reuse or reinjection into the groundwater to replenish the aquifer. The Company will publish information on the percentage of treated water used for these purposes and for the cooling tower makeup and landscaping uses.
- Under this XL Project, Intel also commits to manage stormwater in retention basins rather than in dry wells.
- Management of Waste
- Intel voluntarily commits to recycle significant volumes of paper, aluminum, wood, metal, glass and other solid waste generated at the Ocotillo Site.
- Intel also voluntarily commits to recycle significant volumes of hazardous waste generated at the Ocotillo Site.
- In addition, the Company voluntarily commits to recycle significant volumes of non-hazardous chemical waste generated at the Ocotillo Site.
- These pollution prevention activities will decrease the amount of solid, hazardous, and non-hazardous chemical waste that ultimately must be treated and disposed of off-site. Information on the Company's progress toward attaining its waste recycle goals for the Ocotillo Site will be made publicly available.
- Design for the Environment ("DFE") Program
- Intel has incorporated its DFE program as a key element in its environmental management system for the Ocotillo Site. As part of its DFE program, Intel is committed to developing environmentally compatible products and processes by means of continuous improvement methodologies.
- The DFE program prioritizes environmental management according to a hierarchy which begins with reduction and is followed by reuse, recycle and environmentally proper disposal. The environmental improvements are developed for each new technology generation and transferred to manufacturing facilities where they are consistently implemented.
- Integrated Emergency Plan
- Intel will implement by January 1, 1997, an integrated electronic emergency plan for preventing, preparing for and responding to accidental spills or releases of chemical substances at the Ocotillo Site.
- This integrated plan will enhance Intel's accident prevention measures and any necessary emergency response at the Ocotillo Site, as well as increase the community's access to and understanding of emergency response information. The plan will comply with all applicable environmental emergency planning requirements.
- Integrated Reporting
- Intel has combined routine environmental reporting requirements and accountability measures for voluntary goals set forth in this FPA into a single, integrated report form that will be publicly available and distributed to participating agencies on a quarterly and annual basis.
- This consolidated report form is intended to increase public understanding of, and public access to, information regarding the Ocotillo Site. The ability to integrate routine reporting will provide Intel staff with more time to focus on real environmental improvements.
- Other Environmentally Beneficial Activities
- As part of the XL Project, Intel also commits to maintain a setback of 1,000 feet from the closest manufacturing-related building structure on the Ocotillo Site to residential property, even though the legally required setback is only 56 feet.
- In addition, Intel has committed the Ocotillo Site to be involved in the Company's environmental mentoring activities and in its equipment donation programs.
- Intel also is committed to investigate additional innovative ways to meet the trip reduction requirements of Maricopa County. This FPA establishes the framework for Intel's XL Project at the Ocotillo Site. In particular, the FPA includes as attachments the air permit and consolidated report form for the Ocotillo Site. These attachments form an integral part of the FPA, and the requirements set forth in them are enforceable under existing laws and regulations. In addition, as noted above, the text of the FPA includes specific long-term environmental goals for the Ocotillo Site that are not required by law.