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Response Letter: from OECA, 11/12/04

UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460

NOV 12  2004

 
OFFICE OF
ENFORCEMENT AND
COMPLIANCE ASSURANCE


Ms. Dorothy P. Bowers, Chair
National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology
111.Aberdeen Road Matawan, NJ 07747

Dear Ms. Bowers:

   I want to thank the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology and the Compliance Assistance Advisory Committee (NACEPT-CAAC) for the thoughtful recommendations in the NACEPT-CAAC final report, Recommendations for Enhancing EPA 's Compliance Assistance Program, sent to Administrator Leavitt on July 14, 2004. I also want to extend my thanks to each of the members for their service to the Committee over the past two years.

   As promised in EPA's interim response to you this Summer, the Agency carefully reviewed all of the CAAC recommendations as well as the tools developed by the CAAC to implement the recommendations. I am sharing our general reactions to the final CAAC report in this letter and am including, as an enclosure, a detailed summary of the steps EPA is taking or planning to take to enhance its compliance assistance (CA) program in response to the NACEPT-CAAC recommendations. This enclosed response is organized around the three themes contained in the report: 1) EPA-wide integration of CA into the Agency's mission, goals, and activities; 2) development of parameters which will enable EPA to successfully measure CA results; and 3) optimization of the CA network across EPA and other environmental assistance providers.

   EPA generally agrees with the report's recommendations. By way of example, the Agency's "Smart Enforcement" philosophy is consistent with your recommendation to find and employ the most effective mix of tools to address the most significant environmental problems. Both the NACEPT-CAAC and EPA recognize that CA can be used as a preventive tool to avoid violations of environmental laws. The real challenge, as you clearly articulate, is to be able to measure the compliance rates and trends for regulated entities and the actual environmental endpoints as a result of implementing CA. Addressing this challenge will take some time, but I believe we have begun to take the steps necessary to meet this challenge. EPA also recognizes the importance of vigorously promoting measurement and tying funding to the demonstration of outcomes and, depending on resource availability, providing funds to support and pilot CA measurement activities.

   In addition to seeking advice from the NACEPT-CAAC on CA issues, we convened a complimentary group, the Compliance Assistance Policy and Infrastructure Steering Committee (CAPI), comprised of EPA headquarters and regional managers. The CAPI's charge was to identify ways to further integrate CA with other compliance assurance tools and ensure that there is an infrastructure in place to support the use of CA and measure its success. Like the CAAC, the CAPI provided recommendations to EPA senior managers on enhancing the CA program. Collectively, the NACEPT-CAAC and CAPI recommendations address the breadth of issues facing the CA program, including strategic planning and priority setting, communication and coordination, implementation, and finally performance measurement. EPA will use both sets of recommendations as a roadmap for enhancing our CA program and will share them with the broader CA provider network.

   In closing, our agenda for CA addresses the key recommendations of your report. The extent to which we are able to undertake the activities and projects identified in the enclosure depends, in large part, on available resources and competing Agency priorities in FY 2005. If you have any questions or would like to discuss any of this further, please contact Michael Stahl, Director, Office of Compliance, at (202) 564-2280 or James Edward, Director, Compliance Assistance and Sector Programs Division, at (202) 564-2462.

     Sincerely,


     Phyllis P. Harris
     Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator


Enclosure

cc: EPA Assistant and Associate Administrators
  EPA Regional Administrators
OECA Office Directors
EPA Regional Enforcement Coordinators
EPA Compliance Assistance Coordinators
Compliance Assistance Advisory Committee Members

Enclosure

EPA's Response to the Compliance Assistance Advisory Committee (CAAC)
Recommendations for Enhancing EPA's Compliance Assistance Program

I.

 EPA-wide Integration of Compliance Assistance (CA) into the Agency's Mission, Goals and Activities

EPA should:

EPA Activities Initiated or Planned in Response to Recommendations (listed in general order of the CAAC recommendations)

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The Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) established a set of preventive measures that regions will begin reporting on in FY2005 as an initial step to begin measuring and reporting on the value of preventing noncompliance.

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 EPA initiated two vehicles for improving the planning, coordination, and measurement of EPA 's environmental assistance efforts. The first is the Environmental Assistance Network comprised of a subset of EPA offices with assistance functions to collaborate on issues across the Agency. EPA has also formed a CA Managers Team comprised of senior regional and headquarters managers to ensure that CA issues are elevated and addressed within OECA and the regional compliance and enforcement programs. We will share the CAAC recommendations with these groups and promote implementation and/or piloting of recommendations by other EPA headquarters and regional offices.

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 EPA program offices as well as our state and tribal partners participated in OECA 's new national planning process to provide input on the upcoming fiscal year 2005 - 2007 environmental priorities. We have also sought the input and involvement of these partners in the development of OECA 's performance-based strategies to address the identified environmental priorities. Note that CA was considered and incorporated, where appropriate, in OECA 's performance-based strategies.
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We continue to collect all of EPA 's planned CA activities each fiscal year and share this information both internally and externally to facilitate collaboration on assistance activities and to avoid duplication of effort.

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OECA will share the CAAC's organizational management system self-assessment tool within EPA and post it on the National Environmental Assistance Clearinghouse. OECA will also explore opportunities for utilizing the CA self-assessment tool within EPA.

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 OECA will also encourage states to assess their CA programs. OECA 's current state program review pilots include CA as a voluntary component of the review. Once OECA evaluates the results of these pilots, it will be better able to assess whether the organizational management system self-assessment tool developed by the CAAC can be utilized in future OECA reviews of state programs. At a minimum, we will ask the Regional CA Coordinators to share this tool with their states for consideration as a CA program self-assessment tool.

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 The Office of Compliance (OC) is working more closely with the communications staff in OECA to more regularly include CA information and resources in its existing communication vehicles like the " Enforcement Alerts." OC also created new communication vehicles like The CA COMPASS, a national CA newsletter, to share successes and lessons learned with other CA providers.

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All EPA Regions designated Compliance Assistance Coordinators who have significantly improved communication on CA activities within their regions, across regions and with states and tribes.

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 EPA will promote the benefits and cost-efficacy of self-initiated compliance through its incentive policies and programs as well as look for additional opportunities to better educate the regulated community on the benefits of compliance. EPA 's recently issued Small Local Governments Policy is an example of an incentive policy that encourages small local governments to voluntarily work with regulators to achieve and sustain environmental compliance. It also provides an alternative that allows states to reduce or waive penalties if certain conditions are met and the local government commits to implementing an environmental management system (EMS) for its operations.
II. Develop Parameters to Successfully Measure CA Results EPA should:
EPA should:
•

 Keep measures simple and universal. Identify cross-program, sector-based performance goals.
•
 Focus on compliance behaviors and trends in the regulated community.
 

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 Examine current measurement data used across the Agency, at other Agencies, and the private sector, to identify a suite of best management practices for measuring program performance. The practices should also clearly identify and communicate the limits of collected data in demonstrating the effectiveness of CA (e.g.,asserting X tons of emissions reduced from distributing a fact sheet).
 

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Develop and use a consistent and systematic approach to measurement to identify areas of greatest need for human health and environmental protection and prioritize CA efforts to focus on those needs.
 

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Use a single set of measures for assessing the outcomes and impacts of all four components of its integrated compliance assurance program and to identify the mix of those components that is most effective in promoting increased compliance.
• Provide the necessary support and resources
 

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 Budget measurement funding commensurate with expectations of measurement objectives. Recognize and communicate the potential impacts that measurement and reporting requirements may place on the delivery of CA. To minimize these impacts, EPA should develop and use statistically-valid performance data as a surrogate for actual performance measurement.

•

 Train CA managers and providers on measurement techniques and strategies.
•
 Use the Environmental Compliance Assistance Clearinghouse to identify and promote effective CA measurement techniques.
EPA Activities Initiated or Planned in Response to Recommendations
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  OECA developed an infrastructure to: 1) identify, promote and utilize common measures and measurement methodologies; and 2) encourage OECA, media program offices, regional and state collaboration on CA outcome measurement.
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  EPA included CA as a Congressionally tracked Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) measure under Goal 5. This action should help to improve the focus, consistency and quality of CA measurement.
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  EPA will use and promote the Goal 5 CA outcome measures for consistent reporting. The Agency's Environmental Assistance Network is trying to identify common assistance measures that can be used by offices participating in the Network to tell a more complete story about the outcomes of our efforts.
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  OECA commits to analyzing results of CA activities and generating guidance on best practices and lessons learned.

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   OECA 's performance tracking system (ICIS) now tracks CA outputs and outcomes as well as enforcement outputs and outcomes. For the first time, EPA is capturing some of the results of its on-site CA visits using a new Compliance Assistance Conclusion Data Sheet (CACDS) and is entering this information into ICIS. We are working to ensure that all planned and completed CA activities are reported into this system so that we can tell a better story about our CA efforts and use the information to help manage and assess the national CA program.

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   The performance-based strategies recently developed to address the OECA national priorities require that common output and outcome measures be identified up front to help assess the effectiveness of these strategies, including CA, enforcement, compliance monitoring and incentive activities.
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  OECA is working with the EPA and State Environmental Data Standards Council to ascertain if states support the need for a uniform CA data standard.
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  OECA will continue to use venues such as the Environmental Partnership Summit, and State/EPA measurement workgroup calls to increase the number of assistance projects with thoughtful outcome measurement and generate the best possible data to demonstrate effectiveness.
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  OECA will continue to pilot activities testing statistically valid compliance rate methodologies.

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   CA measurement training has been provided to all EPA Regions and EPA 's Small Business Office. Stafffrom several states attended this training as well. EPA will continue to provide measurement training on an as-needed basis and we are exploring the utility of creating a video or web-based measurement training.

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   OECA commits to using the National Environmental CA Clearinghouse as one venue for identing and disseminating effective CA measurement techniques. The "Measures" tab on the CA Clearinghouse site specifically links to guidance, success stories and tools for measuring environmental program results.
III.
Optimize the CA Network Across EPA and Other Environmental Assistance Providers
EPA should:
•


 Map and analyze the existing network for the targeted population during the development of any CA program. The CAAC developed CA-Mapper, a survey-based visualization tool for understanding the CA network and the effective pathway for delivering CA.
•
 Recognize the limits of the wholesale-retail model and make reasonable demands on the education outreach related to it.
•

 Improve identification and support of communication methods that create information of use to the regulated community. Apply resources to identify, nurture and deploy best CA practices, tools and techniques to providers.
•
 Build upon recognized behavior models (e.g., the Stages of Change model) to improve effectiveness of CA.
•
 Provide training and support to CA providers to integrate behavioral sciences into CA planning and delivery
• Identify and evaluate programs at federal, state tribal and local agencies that have proved effective in using recognized behavioral models. Establish a Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee to assist EPA with incorporating these best management practices into CA efforts.
EPA Activities Initiated or Planned in Response to Recommendations
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OC will explore whether the "CA-Mapper" tool developed by the CAAC can be utilized by the Agency (within the limitations imposed by the Paperwork Reduction Act) in CA or social marketing pilots.
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OECA will share the CA Mapper tool developed by the CAAC within EPA and post it on the National Environmental Clearinghouse.
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EPA is funding research grants to better identify what influences the behavior of the regulated communities
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The Agency is focusing more strategically on the CA needs of the end-user through the application of social marketing principles. OC recently formed a "community of practitioners " to focus on social marketing and its application to environmental compliance and enforcement. The group will operate as a social learning system for sharing and building on the current knowledge of social marketing and how those principles can be used in its work.
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One very successful model that OC utilized to create information that is more useful to the regulated community is the "tools workgroup." Workgroups for both the auto salvage and construction sectors were created in 2002. These multi-stakeholder groups consisted of representatives from EPA, states, industry, trade associations, academia and nonprofit organizations. The groups identified gaps in available CA resources to address the major compliance problems in each industry and developed tools to fill those gaps. On-line compendiums of existing CA tools for both industries were also created out of this effort.
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OECA commits to use vehicles such as the Integrated and Performance-based Strategies Guide, the Environmental Summit, CA Newsletter and our best management practices awards to identify, nurture and promote best CA practices, tools and techniques to EPA and other providers.
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While our efforts are still in the early stages, EPA has begun training staff on social marketing concepts and will look for opportunities to conduct pilot projects to help better define the CA needs of specific regulated entities.
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OECA commits to begin identifying and evaluating programs at federal, state tribal and local agencies that have proved effective in using behavioral models. The Federal CA Roundtable, which includes representatives from several federal agencies who discuss broadly applicable CA issues, will be utilized as one mechanism for following through on this commitment. The Roundtable is co-lead by EPA and OSHA. Once OECA has completed identifying and evaluating behavior models that represent best management practices, we will assess whether an advisory committee or other group should be established to assist EPA with incorporating these practices into our CA efforts.

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