Regulatory information systems The next generation of environmental management
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Barbara J. Goldsmith Encironmental Research & Technology, Inc. ( E R T ) Concord, Mass. 01 742
The number of federal and state environmental regulations affecting industrial activities grew explosively during the past decade and continues to grow at a substantial rate. I n 1982, the federal government issued 2077 individual documents affecting Title 40 (Protection of Environment) of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) ( I ) . Most states also issued large numbers of new or changed regulations, exceeding the output of the federal government. As a result, industrial operators face the enormously challenging task of keeping current with changing regulatory rcquirements and the compliance status of their operations. A single vinyl chloride manufacturing plant. for example. may be subject to over 450 individual regulatory requirements under the federal Clean Air and Resource Conservation and Recovery Acts alone, and to almost the same number of state and local requirements (2).
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The problem Individual companies bear the burden of monitoring environmental regulations to determine the applicability of specific requirements to their operations and to develop compliance plans. This means that each company must sift through a large group of environmental regulations. searching for regulatory requirements affccting individual facilities. While companies have access to several environmental 306A
Environ. Sci. Technol.. Val. 17. No. 7. 1983
0013-936X/83/0916-0306A$01.50/0
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regulatory reporting services and government publications, these resources do not define which requirements affect an individual corporation, its operating divisions, or its individual plants. Even a large staff assigned solely to tracking environmental laws and regulations cannot readily identify all potential requirementsor determine their applicability to particular operations because of the innate complexity of the regulations. This problem is magnified when a company operates different types of facilities in diverse locations. For such a company, identifying environmental regulatory requirements often becomes fragmented as disparate elements of the organization attempt to undertake this task, creating inefficiency through duplication of effort. Environmental regulations involve extensive, detailed language and nonstandard formats, hindering the organization of regulatory compliance information. Environmental regulatory tracking is further impeded by frequent changes in requirements, which are issued at irregular intervals, by changes in plant-specific operating parameters (which in turn may affect the applicability of the regulations),
and by personnel turnover in operating firms. Despite these difficulties, corporate managers and plant operators need to know the specific environmental regulatory requirements that apply to their operations on a continuing basis to ensure compliance and to provide information for efficient corporate planning. For example, a company may need to: undertake a compliance audit of a facility (or group of facilities) to TABLE 1
Sample framework for structuring environmental information in a programspecific regulatory summa1 Statutory authority Regulations Activities regulated
* Activities excluded from regulation * Agencies * Requirements enalties for noncompliano ompliance date egulatory terminology
avoid noncompliance penalties and to ensure cost-effectiveness of pollution controls; determine (or demonstrate) compliance with the terms of operating permits or compliance orders; identify environmental costs in corporate planning, including the need to file disclosures concerning capital and operating expenditures for pollution control; assess long-term environmental risks and liabilities; or determine the “environmental viability” of planned new or expanded facilities. Management of information
Centralized monitoring of regulatory developments would make the process of sorting out regulatory requirements much more efficient. An information system that organizes environmental regulations in termsof the actual regulatory requirements for specific facility operations, with simplified and immediate access to the information, would better serve the needs of both corporate environmental managers and plant operating personnel. Achieving this goal requires a
FIGURE 1
Uses of environmental management system information Users
information types
Applications
Episodic reporting Compliance reviews
Site evaluation Permit application Monitoring and reporting Strategy development
Policy analysis Training
Proposed Enacted
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Regulations Federal State Proposed Enacted
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Permits Issued Applications Emissions data
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Court decisions Consent decrees
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Administrative documer Agency guidance Notices Technical support documents Administrative rules Geoaraohic information
Enviran. Scl. Techml., Val. 17. No. 7. 1983
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TABLE 2
Condensation of the Clean Air Act into program-specilic requirements affecting industrial users Progam 1: Program 2
Propram 3 Program 4 Program5 Program 8: Program 7: Prqrams: ROgramS
New source performance standards (NSPS) National emission standards fw hazardous air pollutents
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(NESHAP) Prevention of significant &e Nonattainment Motor vehicle emlssion Aircraft emissions
F ~registration‘# I Fuel reglllation gji Wayed Immpl and o w‘stale
Program IO:
Rosam 11: Program 12: Program 1 3 ’rogam 1 4
Imminentendangerm ~mployeeprotection
R-&.
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entry,and a d
method to codify facility-specific information and to efficiently search all environmental regulatory information applicable to that facility. Both the environmental regulatory information and the operational information must be updated continuously to provide useful management information.
A management system Computerized data bases used extensively in other professions (e.& LEXIS and WESTLAW, which are used by the legal profession) have proven to be effective search and retrieval systems for particularly large amounts of information. Similarly, a computerized data base of environmental regulatory information can serve as a primary reference resource for industrial operators. The usefulness of an environmental regulatory information system is determined by several factors such as the types of information included, the structure and format of the information coding and retrieval system, and the flexibility and ease of access for the user. Users, representing various divisions or functions (e&, operational, engineering, planning, legal) within a company typically require different types and levels of detail of information. Figure l shows the range of applications by different users and the corresponding kinds of information needed. Many interrelationships between users, applications, and information types exist; some examples are indicated. A wide range of environmental information is required to fulfill the needs of all user groups in a company. 308,.
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Envirm. Sci. Technoi.. VoI. 17, NO.7, 1983
In addition to identifying direct compliance requirements, daily developments in the environmental field provide important “intelligence” on regulatory trends that may, in turn, bear upon a company’s compliance strate-
gies or broader corporate plans. Therefore, many companies also follow proposed federal and state legislative and regulatory actions, ongoing litigation and court decisions related to environmental regulatory issues, instances in which exemptions, variances, or delayed compliance orders are granted concerning regulatory requirements, and so forth. Companies may also want to keep up with scientific and technological studies containing background information and technical interpretation of the environmental, social, or economic costs and benefits associated with a regulatory action. Since no single environmental management information system presently offers a compendium of these diverse types of environmental information, companies must use multiple resources to obtain information on the full range of environmental regulatory matters. These types of information can be incorporated into an environmental information system to provide an expanded information base for corporate decision making on environmental issues. Identification of the environmental regulatory requirements affecting an industrial operation requires the
FIGURE 2
Schematic diagram of an environmental management information system
I ,rJL Facility information Raw materials ProcBSSes Products Wastes Capacities Control techniques Updatesichanges to above
Regulatory requirements -More than 12 federal laws pertaining to: Water pollution Air pollution Hazardouslsolidwastes Statellocal laws pertaining to: Water pollution Air pollution Hazardouskolid wastes Operating permit terms Updatesichanges to above
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FIGURE 3
Illustration of how environmentil compllance requirements applicable to the Louisiana VCM plant are generated for a single program undar TSCA
,,ntaining "full" rquiatory Isummary for a single program
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Generic profile questlonnalre
Containing questions designed to elicit information concerning applicability of each requirement in the regulatory summary
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profile
ntaining responses to the above ?stions for a specific facility
."'~"." tween specificprofile responses d environmental data base ...,^.^^. *",IS.~Y"I.
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Environmental regulation data base For greater efficiency, most users require program-specific regulatory reports. Moreover, the automated data base must conform to a "three Cs" specification: It must be comprehensive, current, and correct if it is to serve as the primary reference source for environmental regulatory information. How should this information be organized? By way of example, Table 1 lists the category headings being used to organize environmental regulations in the ENVIRONET information service that Environmental Research & Technology, Inc. (ERT) has developed for industrial clients. This format is used for each program mandated
Yes-NoIf yes, go to question 4. If no, go to uestion 17. 4. 1s your &B" activity from question 3 related to transformersother than railroad transformers. Yes-No-
I 3. Yes
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yes
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For regulatory summary contact author.
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merging of two distinct sets of information: regulatory information and faciliiy-specific operating information. Because both sets of information are subject to change, their intersection must be tracked continually. Automated environmental information management systems now becoming available merge these two data sets. Figure 2 displays this concept.
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3. Do you"process.""distribute in commer( or use any"PCB"or"PC6item'lin any manner except a "totally enclosed manner"within t h e US. or do you export any such PCB or PCB item?
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Resultant r ulatory summa Containing i3ormation .... .. applica#e .
6.3.1 Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
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Types of available regulatory Informationa
Full textpublicatio0of federalands environmental lawslregulations Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) Environment Reporter Abstracts of legislative and regula activity Congressional Research Serv Inc. Congressional Record stracts (CRECORD)
Newletters Inside EPA Case law summaries
LEXlS Bibliographic data bases Invironment Information Ce iNVlROLlNE
cipline-specificdata bases INA CHEMLAW :ility-specific data bases
invironmental Research 8 Techiology, Inc. (ENVIRONET) 'mpanies may be required to use multiple UTto obtain inlwmation on the full r---wironmental regulatory matters.
under an individual environmental law. For example, Table 2 illustrates that the highly complex Clean Air Act can be organized into 14 specific programs that place direct compliance requirements on industrial operators. Level of detail in the available regulatory descriptions varies as needed from short summaries, to standard format descriptions of requirements, to the full legal text. Most industrial users indicate that they are interested primarily in environmental regulatory information that directly affects their facilities, and that what they need most are summaries of regulations that specifically create compliance requirements. Once a program has been fully documented in the environmental data base, it can be updated continuously. Facility-specificinformation The operating information listed under facility-specific information in Figure 2 is used to determine the applicability of specific regulatory requirements to individual facilities. This requires the careful construction of a Envlron. Sci. Techmi., Vol. 17. No. 7,1983
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user profile questionnaire that defines process control and operating parameters, in appropriate levels of detail, to enable correlation between individual regulatory requirements and their applicability to a specific operation. The questionnaire is then completed for each operation defined (e.g., an operating division or an individual plant). Proper structuring of information contained in the questionnaire provides the basis for determining the applicability of a specific regulatory requirement to the operation of interest. A simple example: Do you own or operate a “nitric acid production unit” that commenced construction or modification after Aug. - 17, 1971? YesNo-. This auestion is desiened to determine wheth’er an induscial operation is subject to the New Source Performance Standards for nitric acid plants under the Clean Air Act. Since “nitric acid production unit” has a specific meaning in the context of this question, the definition for this term is included as part of the questionnaire. The facility profile is updated whenever a change occurs in operations or regulatory requirements. Merging data sets Merging the environmental data base and the information contained in the facility-specific profile will produce a listing of regulatory requirements affecting the industrial operation. Computer software can correlate answers to questions in the facility profile to specific regulatory requirements contained in the environmental data base. A “yes” answer indicates the requirement is applicable, and a “no” answer deletes the requirement as not applicable, thereby producing a regulatory summary containing only those requirements applicable to the specific operation. Continuous updating of both the general environmental regulatory data base and the facility-specific profiles provides users with current regulatory information affecting their particular operations. Printed listings of requirements are available directly from the computer. Users may also want to retrieve information using an on-line system. Case example The following example of a chemical manufacturing plant in Louisiana illustrates the complexity of environmental compliancerequirements faced by a single industrial plant. It also shows how an environmental infor310A
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mation management system can reduce this complexity by “selecting” only the directly applicable compliance requirements. The scope of the complete environmental management task becomes apparent if this example is expanded to include all plants and process units in a major manufacturing company. The company in the example operates a vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) manufacturing plant in Louisiana. It produces ethylene dichloride on-site, using ethylene and chlorine as raw materials, and ferric chloride as a catalyst. The ethylene dichloride is then reacted to produce gaseous vinyl chloride monomer. By-products from the process include trichloroethane, ethyl chloride, ethylene dichloride tars, and VCM tars. The principal environmental issues associated with this plant include: Air emissions of fugitive air contaminants from process equipment; emissions of sulfur oxides, volatile organic compounds, and particulates
from point sources such as vents, incinerators, and other equipment; and emissions of hazardous air pollutants. Water neutralization of acidic effluents; phase separation of water and organic compound mixtures; wastewater streams requiring biochemical oxygen demand treatment; dischaqge of storm water; and precipitation of metal ion solutions. Hazardous wastes generation of metallic sludges; generation of tank bottoms; and generation of process filters and related items containing hazardous constituents. Responses to a user profile questionnaire for this plant were used to prepare a summary of applicable environmental compliance requirements. Figure 3 illustrates the relationship between the questionnaire, the environmental data base, and the resulting
TABLE 4
Programs VCM plan Determina Notificationof hazardous waste activi Generation of hazardous wastes Transpwtation of hazardous wastes Hazardous waste treatment. stwage, Permits and interim status General treatment, storage. and disposal Containers Tanks Waste piles Chemical, physical, and biological treatment Inspections Monitoring, testing. and analysis Imminent hazards Employee protection
regulatory summary. The example in this figure concerns polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Merging the two data sets indicates that this plant is subject to environmental compliance requirements mandated under at least eight individual federal environmental statutes (see Table 3). Further, this plant is subject to numerous individual programs under each of these statutes (see example for RCRA in Table 4). In addition, it is subject to environmental compliance requirements mandated under multiple Louisiana state regulations for air, solid waste, and water (see Table S), and numerous individual programs defined under each of these
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regulations (see example for air pollution in Table 6). A thorough profile for an individual industrial plant typically can be completed in a matter of days. Once a facility is characterized, a consolidated summary of applicable regulatory requirements is created that can be updated periodically without additional research by the user. By comparison, manual gathering and tracking of environmental regulations including applicability determinations and monitoring changing requirements, require nearly full-time commitment of one or more professional staff for a single industrial facility. A corporation can use the automated process to generate regulatory infor-
TABLE 5
Louisia,., ,nvironmental statuteshegulati the example VCM plant Louisiana Environmental Affairs Act (Title 30, Chapter 11)
Louisiana EnvimnmenL -vr,lrol Commi regulations
Louisiana solid waste management prcgrar I and regulations Louisiana hazardous waste management pian Louisiana wastewater disdwge rules and regulai Louisiana water quality criteria I
Louisiana drinking water regulations
mation specific to each facility but the monitoring and updating functions then become centralized and simultaneous processes across all facilities. This results in significant savings of time and money and ensures that the information is comprehensive, current, and correct. Recapping An environmental regulatory information system can greatly improve efficiency by reducing the resources needed to track regulations and by spreading the cost of detailed tracking across a large number of industrial facilities. An accurate and up-to-date basis for compliance review is provided by the single, comprehensive data base of current environmental requirements. Codification of facility-specific information simplifies the process of identifying environmental requirements that are applicable to a company and its individual operations. This system provides information that can be integrated into company-wide quality assurance or compliance audit programs, inform environmental managers and plant personnel concerning the specific environmental compliance requirements affecting their operations, and provide base information for use in corporate planning to ensure more efficient operations. A regulatory information system also reduces the risks of disrupting operations or of penalties that might result from inattention to regulatory requirements. References
TABLE 6
Programs under Louisiana air quality regulations appilc to the example VCM plant Construction and operating permits
(I)This includes 805 final rule dacuments, 489 proposed rule-making documents and 183 notices. Source: Information compiled by the Regulatory Information Service Center. Executive Office of the President, 1983. (2) Source: ERT.
General permit requirements Nonattainment permit requirements Prevention of significantdeteriorationpermit requirements E m w o n standards and Ilmitatloni General source emission standards Control of visible emissions Particulate and leaded particulate emissions from process sources particulate emissions from iuei-bwning equipment Organic compound emissions Suiiur oxide emissions New source prformance standards Natinal emission standards for hazardous air poilutams Operatlonsi practices and llmitatlons Revention of air pollution emergency episodes 43en burning Emission inventory and repwting requirements Amblent ah quallty standards
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Barbara . I . Goldsmith, a specialist in enuironmental regulation and industrial planning, is senior program manager of ERT's Regulatory lnformation Seruices Diuision, which provides computer-based enuironmental management services to' industry. She holds a Master of City Planning ( M C P ) in enuironmental analysisfrom Haruard University and preuiously served as manager of ERT's office in Washington, D.C. Environ. Sci. Technai.. Val. 17. No. 7, 1983
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