EPA Compliance

The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) criminal enforcement program is to investigate, help prosecute and deter the most egregious environmental offenders. Our nation’s environmental laws include criminal provisions that address knowing and negligent environmental violations. For example, an intentional decision to discharge pollutants into a river without a permit, or to bypass a required pollution control device, would be a ―knowing environmental violation, and thus a criminal act. Criminal enforcement brings to bear the possibility of incarceration and monetary fines that are EPA’s strongest sanctions.

“While both corporations and individuals pay penalties, only individuals can go to prison – a sanction that no one can pass along to the American consumer as just another cost of doing business.”
James Strock – former EPA Assistant Administrator for Enforcement, testifying in support of the Pollution Prosecution Act of 1990

Here are a few violations that not only can cost you more money than your annual budget, but also land you in the pokey for years!

• Air emissions of toxic pollutants resulting from inadequate or nonexistent pollution control
• Illegal discharges into surface waters or municipal sewer systems that threaten public safety, cause costly damage to infrastructure and impact aquatic resources
• Illegal handling, transportation and disposal of hazardous wastes
• Industry-wide ocean dumping by cruise lines, cargo ships and other vessels
• Oil spills that damage beaches, near-shore marine and other sensitive habitats
• Illegal dredging and filling of wetlands
• False statements related to submissions to EPA or delegated states that threaten the integrity of environmental protection programs
• Pesticide violations, which cause evacuations, sickness or death in humans or wildlife

Our EPA Training Programs

Our training programs can protect you from exorbitant penalties and prison time.

Hazardous Waste Rules Training

Our premiere program is the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act or Hazardous Waste Rules training. The program includes:

• Comprehensive training and updates on the U.S. EPA hazardous waste regulations (40 CFR 260-279), and
• Meets the EPA’s annual training and re-training mandates. This course can be modified for generators, transporters, and treatment-storage-disposal facilities.

Course Outline:

• Regulatory terms and definitions
• Waste identification: what is a RCRA hazardous waste
• 40 CFR 273 recycling rules, exclusions, and reliefs
• How to properly accumulate and store hazardous waste on site
• Land disposal restrictions
• Emergency preparedness, contingency plans, and security rules
• The EPA and DOT rules for completing the hazardous waste manifest
• Hazardous waste recordkeeping, reporting, and the training standard
• Facility closure standards.

Who Should Be Trained?

Those individuals responsible for assuring compliance with the U.S. EPA hazardous waste regulations. This includes anyone who reads and interprets RCRA regulation, develops facility procedures, trains other employees, handles waste, manages records, and maintenance employees.

SARA Title III Training and Compliance

In-depth workshop on compliance and report filing for Tier I, II, and III, including, but not limited to the following emergency planning and reporting particulars:

40 CFR 355 Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know

Emergency Release Notification – Course Outline:

• What facilities must comply with the emergency release notification requirements of this subpart
• What types of releases are exempt from the emergency release notification requirements of this subpart
• Which emergency release notification requirements apply to continuous releases
• What release quantities of EHSs and CERCLA hazardous substances trigger the emergency release notification requirements of this subpart
• What information must be provided
• In what format should the information be submitted
• To whom and when must you submit the information.

40 CFR 355 – Emergency Release Planning;

• To what substances do the emergency planning requirements of this subpart apply
• Must my facility comply with the emergency planning requirements of this subpart
• How do I calculate the quantity of an extremely hazardous substance present in mixtures
• Do I have to aggregate extremely hazardous substances to determine the total quantity present
• Which threshold planning quantity do I use for an extremely hazardous substance present at my facility in solid form
• How do I determine the quantity of extremely hazardous substances present for certain forms of solids
• If this subpart applies to my facility, what information must I provide, who must I submit it to, and when is it due
• In what format should the information be submitted
• To whom and when must you submit the information.

40 CFR 372 – Toxic Chemical Release Inventory

• Persons subject to this part
• Recordkeeping
• Compliance and enforcement
• Reporting Requirements
• Supplier Notification Requirement
• Chemicals and Chemical Categories to which this Part Applies
• E-Forms and Instructions.

Who Should be Trained?

Those individuals responsible for emergency planning, responders, report filers, and record keepers.