Enforcement - Compliance

Compliance monitoring is a system used by regulatory agencies to determine if environmental laws and regulations are being obeyed. The two most general types of compliance monitoring are self-monitoring used by regulated facilities and compliance inspections.

Most air pollution regulations require facilities to self-monitor their own compliance status. A typical regulation includes detailed monitoring, reporting, and record keeping requirements. For example, a facility is required to monitor the performance of a control device at specified intervals using methods provided in the regulation. The results of the monitoring will have to be reported to the responsible enforcement agency at intervals specified in the regulation. Finally, the regulation will detail the amount of time that a facility must maintain records. This system of self-monitoring, reporting, and record keeping is an essential component of EPA's overall compliance strategy. An air pollution permit includes all monitoring, reporting, and record keeping requirements a facility must meet to be in compliance.

Compliance inspections are another method for determining compliance. The basic objectives of an inspection are to:

• Assess the compliance status of a facility
• Collect evidence of any specific violations of any law or regulation
• Create a visible presence of the enforcement agency in the eyes of the regulated facility

This threat of an inspection, along with actual inspections, can help deter violations at a facility. Inspections can be routine plant visits, visits prompted by a specific reason, or follow-ups to previous inspections. Ideally, every regulated facility would be inspected on a regular basis. No agency has the manpower or resources, however, to conduct regular inspections of all facilities under its jurisdiction. For this reason, regulatory agencies develop schemes to set priorities for their inspections. Priority setting is governed by the likelihood that a violation would cause a risk to human health and the environment, a given facility would be in violation of a regulation, and an inspection would help deter violations. A regulatory agency might classify all industrial facilities into priority classes based on these criteria. More facilities in the higher classes would be inspected than in the lower priority classes.