United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Policy, Planning,
And Evaluation
(2111)
EPA 230-K-95-002
June 1995
vvEPA
Small Business And The
Environmental Protection
Agency
Building a Common Sense
Approach to Environmental
Protection
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Cover photo: Staff members with EPA's Design for
Environment Program discuss pollution prevention
strategies with the manager of a dry cleaning
business.
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A Letter from the EPA Administrator
Dear Delegate:
I would like to welcome you to Washing-
ton, D.C. for the 1995 White House Confer-
ence on Small Business and to extend my
congratulations on your participation in this
historic meeting. I wish you great 'success in
preparing your final recommendations to the
President and Congress. I particularly look
forward to seeing those recommendations
related to the Environmental Protection
Agency.
We at EPA recognize the enormous
contributions that you in the small business
community make to the U.S. economy and to
the prosperity of all Americans. I invite you to be full partners with EPA and the
Clinton Administration in protecting public health and our environment, so that we
can ensure a high quality of life for all Americans today and in the future. \
When President Clinton and I came to Washington two years ago, we recognized
that this nation needed a fundamentally new system of environmental protection.
One that is firmly committed to environmental goals - but also committed to flexibil-
ity, innovation, and common sense in how we achieve those goals. One that recog-
nizes that a thriving economy and a healthy environment can and must go hand in
hand. One that protects more and costs less.
For the past two years, the Clinton Administration has sought to build that new
generation. Industry by industry and community by community, we have sought to
make fundamental changes in the process of environmental protection.
This pamphlet provides an introduction to what we are doing at EPA to reduce
the burdens imposed on small business while ensuring a safe and healthy environ-
ment for all Americans. It describes our efforts to trust honest business owners as
partners, not adversaries - to substitute incentives for penalties - to listen to the
voice of the small business community - to cut red tape - and to launch bold initia-
tives that produce cleaner, cheaper, smarter results.
Please review the contents and let us know what you think. Which initiatives do
you like? Where can we do better? Give my Small Business Ombudsman a call. I
want to work with you to fulfill our mutual goals for a safe and prosperous United
States.
Sincerely,
Carol M. Browner
Administrator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
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Introduction
This pamphlet provides a brief overview of
steps EPA is taking to work with small
businesses to achieve our nation's
environmental and economic goals.
The first section outlines selected initiatives
to reinvent and streamline the regulatory
system so that businesses can achieve better
environmental protection for less cost.
The second section describes the kinds of
support EPA provides to small businesses to
help them understand and comply with the
nation's environmental laws.
The third section moves beyond improve-
ments to the existing system to describe bold
new initiatives that are intended to construct
the building blocks of a new generation of
environmental protection for the 2lst century.
Industry by industry, community by community
these initiatives are helping us find common-
sense, cost-effective environmental solutions
that are cleaner for the environment, cheaper
for business and the taxpayer, and smarter for
America's future.
The fourth section provides descriptions of
selected activities underway within each of
EPA's four program offices for air, water, solid
waste and pesticides/toxics.
At the end of this pamphlet, you will find
information on how to obtain assistance from
EPA's Small Business Ombudsman
I. Reinventing Environmental
Regulation and Reducing the
Burden on Small Business
Cutting Paperwork by 25%
EPA is reducing by 25% the overall reporting
and record-keeping burden associated with its
regulations. We are targeting relief to small
businesses and local governments, making
changes that will save 20-million work-hours
and hundreds of millions of dollars each year -
time and money that can be invested in making
products and cleaning up the environment. For
more information, call Richard Westlund at
(202) 260-2745.
Giving Small Business a Voice:
Expanding the Use of Regulatory
Negotiations
Regulatory negotiation (reg-neg) is a. process
that convenes representatives of small business,
industry, regulators, and other interested
parties to negotiate the text of a proposed rule.
Rather than seeking public comment after a
rule has been developed, this process engages
small businesses and other affected parties
early in the process.
EPA has recently completed a review of all
regulations currently under development to
identify the most promising candidates for reg-
neg and other consensus-based decision-making
approaches. In the future, EPA will routinely
evaluate the appropriateness of using consen-
sus-based rulemaMng every time we issue or
revise a regulation. For more information
call Chris Kirtz at 260-7565.
Improving Regulatory Flexibility
Guidelines
The 1980 Regulatory Flexibility Act, which
originated in a recommendation from the 1980
White House Conference on Small Business '
requires EPA to analyze proposed rules with
respect to their impact on small businesses and
to develop options to reduce adverse effects.
EPA has adopted new guidelines to ensure that
it not just meets but exceeds the requirements
of this Act. For more information csdl Paul
Lapsley at (202) 260-5480.
Reducing Regulatory Barriers to
Innovative Technologies
The EPA-led Environmental Technology Initia-
tive (ETI), launched by President Clinton in his
first State of the Union address in 1993, is an
unprecedented public-private effort to stimulate
environmental technology innovation in the
United States.
ETI promotes the development and use of
innovative environmental technology and
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increases exports of U.S. technologies abroad.
Through ETI, we help small business
entrepreneurs to move new technologies from
the garage to the global marketplace. We
remove regulatory barriers and speed cost-
saving new technologies into the market. And
we help communities find cheaper, cleaner ways
to achieve environmental goals.
Priorities include helping entrepreneurs
obtain permits, test sites and technology
performance verifications that will be credible to
buyers; helping small businesses identify the
most cost-effective pollution prevention and
control technologies; and disseminating informa-
tion on new technologies that can cut compli-
ance costs. For more information, call the
ETI Hotline at (202) 260-2686.
Redevelopment of Brownfields
In February, EPA announced actions to make it
simpler and more cost-effective for businesses-
including small businesses-to redevelop urban
industrial sites, while complying with environ-
mental laws. EPA's Brownfields Action Agenda
encourages economic redevelopment of contami-
nated, abandoned urban property. Environmen-
tal cleanup can be the engine that drives
economic redevelopment.
EPA removed approximately 25,000 sites
from the Superfund Inventory List where it was
determined that there was no need for further
federal action in the near future. Removal of
these properties from the national inventory is
the first step in opening the way for property to
be brought back into productive community use.
For more information, call Jonathan Weiss at
(202) 260-4610.
Electronic Access
EPA is significantly expanding its electronic
programs to make information on EPA pro-
grams and regulations available through
Internet and other electronic means. For
example:
• EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency
Response is making the following information
available on the Internet: Resource Conserva-
tion and Recovery Act (RCRA) rule makings,
dockets, Superfund information and announce-
ments, and solicitations that appear in the
Commerce Business Daily.
• EPA's Office of Air Quality Planning &
Standards operates a Technology Transfer
Network-an electronic bulletin board system
available to the public. In particular, a Clean
Air Act Bulletin Board provides access to
proposed and final rules, background and
guidance documents, plain-English fact sheets,
and implementation strategy updates and
schedules. For more information, call
Herschel Rorex at (919) 541-5637.
• EPA has recently expanded its pollution
prevention electronic communications system
and made it available via the World Wide Web
(Internet). Enviro$en$e is a free, public envi-
ronmental information system that is accessible
24 hours a day through both a Bulletin Board
System (via BBS: 703-908-2092; for help on the
voice hot-line, call: (703) 908-2007) and Internet
(via the Web: http//wastenot.inel.gov/
enviro$en$e). Enviro$en$e is an electronic
library of regulatory data and educational
information on pollution prevention, technical
assistance, and federal facilities environmental
compliance and enforcement.
• Through the Virtual Department of Business,
EPA will make regulations and compliance
information available on the Internet for easy
access by small business. For mo£e informa-
tion, call Rachel VanWingen at (202) 260-
9709.
II. Compliance Support:
Emphasizing A Balanced
Approach to Compliance
Reducing or Eliminating Penalties for
Good-Faith Efforts to Comply
At the June, 1995 White House Conference on
Small Business, EPA Administrator Carol M.
Browner issued a new policy providing small
businesses with significant incentives to comply
with environmental laws. The new policy -
which implements one of President Clintons
March 16, 1995 reinvention initiatives for
environmental regulation - will reduce or waive
penalties for small businesses that make good
faith efforts to correct violations under most
EPA-administered statutes.
This policy builds on EPA's August 1994
policy that provided new incentives for small
businesses to seek compliance assistance from
Clean Air programs without fear of enforce-
ment. The President's announcement on March
16 expanded this incentive package from the air
program to EPA's other regulatory programs.
The policy being announced at the Small
Business Conference will waive fines for small
businesses for first-time violations where the
firm has made a good faith effort to comply
either by requesting compliance assistance from
a small business assistance program or by
conducting a voluntary self-evaluation and sell-
disclosure. This policy applies if the violation
does not result in a significant health, safety, or
environment threat; if the violation is not
criminal; and if the business corrects the
violation within a period of six months, or a full
vear in some circumstances. For more informa-
tion, call Elliott Gilberg (202) 564-2310.
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One-Stop Compliance Assistance
Centers
EPA is establishing National Compliance
Assistance Centers for four small business
sectors in which small businesses predominate
(including printing, metal finishing, auto service
stations and agricultural services), and which
face multiple environmental requirements. The
Centers will work through trade associations
and state small business associations to pro-
vide: plain-English guides to understanding and
complying with environmental laws; electronic
access to information on pollution prevention
and compliance techniques; and a vehicle to
identify opportunities to cut paperwork and
consolidate reporting for the affected industries.
For more information, call David Schnare at
(202) 564-4183.
Incentives for Self-Disclosure and
Correction
In March, 1995, EPA announced dramatic new
incentives for businesses that take responsibil-
ity for finding and fixing environmental viola-
tions on their own. Companies that evaluate
their own operations, then voluntarily disclose
and correct the violations they have uncovered,
can depend on more favorable treatment from '
EPA, in the form of reduced penalties.
In addition, EPA awarded a grant to the
Institute for Environmental Auditing to develop
environmental audit, educational training and
self-help materials to help small businesses
perform self-audits in order to bring themselves
into compliance with EPA regulations on a
voluntary basis. For more information call
Eric Schaffer at (202) 564-2280.
Streamlining Compliance Inspections
EPA is currently evaluating alternative ap-
proaches to streamline the current media-
specific compliance inspection system, which
today results in multiple visits from government
regulators responsible for individual media such
as air pollution or water pollution or solid
waste. EPA is developing a sector-specific,
multi-media compliance checklist to streamline
inspections for each industry. This effort is
initially looking at the printing industry and
will subsequently look at other small business-
dominated sectors, such as dry cleaning. For
more information, call Karin Leff at (202)
564-7068.
Design for the Environment
Design for the Environment (DfE) is a volun-
tary, cooperative program that brings together
people in small and medium-size businesses on
an industry-by-industry basis to identify
cleaner, cheaper substitutes for hazardous
chemicals and production processes.
DfE compiles information on alternative
products and technologies so that small busi-
ness can compare their environmental and
human health risks, exposures, performance
and costs. Developing this information is a
complex analytical task that is often difficult for
small businesses to do by themselves. For
example, the nation's 62,000 printing establish-
ments use hundreds of inks, solvents, and other
chemical products. Eighty percent of printers
employ fewer than 20 employees—so very few of
them have the time or resources to research
chemicals and technologies that are safer for
the environment. For more information, call
Joe Breen at (202) 260-2659
Compliance Information on an
Industry-by-Industry Basis
Recognizing that government must iiilly under-
stand the businesses it regulates, EPA has
organized a new compliance assurance office on
an industry-by-industry basis instead of the
customary air, water, solid waste and pesticide
compartments. To establish a strong informa-
tional basis for the _new office's acthities, EPA
has compiled comprehensive profiles of eighteen
industries, mostly small-business-dominated
ones. These notebooks contain detailed descrip-
tions of industrial processes, regulatory require-
ments, historical compliance data, and opportu-
nities for pollution prevention. This information
will promote businesses' self-evaluatiion and
enhance the inspection process. For example,
EPA is working with auto-body shops and the
Department of Education to develop a new
national environmental curriculum for auto
technicians, including development of an
"environmental checklist" for shopowners to use
in assessing their compliance status. For more
information, call Mike Barrette at (202) 564-
7019.
User-Friendly Compliance Tools for
Small Businesses
EPA, through the Small Business Ombudsman,
awarded a grant to the Center for Hazardous
Materials Research for the development of user-
friendly information to assist small businesses
in cost-effectively complying with environmental
regulations that apply to them. The effort is
being coordinated through national small
business trade associations and EPA's Section
507 Small Business Assistance Program to
assure that the materials meet small business
needs, initially for the following sectors: metal
finishing, dry-cleaning, printing, chemical
manufacturing, and automotive repair. For
more information, contact Karen V. Brown,
EPA Small Business Ombudsman at (800)
368-5888 or, in Washington, D.C., at
(703) 305-5938.
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111. Building a New Generation of
Environmental Protection
The Common Sense Initiative: An Industry-
by-Indxistry Approach
The Common Sense Initiative (CSI) is the
cornerstone of the Clinton Administration's new
generation of public health and environmental
protection. It is a fundamentally different
approach that will move beyond the one-size-
fits-all regulation of the past to a comprehen-
sive industry-by-industry approach for the
future. . , . •
We have started with six pilot industries.
Two of them - metal finishing and printing -
are dominated by small business. (The others
are iron and steel, automobile manufacturing,
computers and electronics, and petroleum
refining.) In each industry, representatives of
business, along with environmentalists, commu-
nity representatives, and regulators, are exam-
ining every aspect of environmental regulation
as it affects their industry to identify effective
reforms for EPA implementation—from permit-
ting to reporting requirements to compliance/
enforcement procedures to environmental
technology. CSI will result in recommendations
for bold new ways of doing business to get
better environmental results at less cost. For
more information, call Vivian Daub at (202)
260-6790.
Project XL
On March 16, 1995, President Clinton an-
nounced Project XL-Excellence and Leadership
—a project designed to harness the creativity
and innovation of the private sector to achieve
superior environmental results. In 50 pilot
projects, businesses and communities will have
the flexibility to use the strategies that work
best for them in achieving-and exceeding-the
goals specified in environmental regulations.
For more information, call Jon Kessler at
(202) 260-3761.
Environmental Leadership Program
EPA is piloting a national program with the
states to work with selected company facilities
to demonstrate innovative approaches to
environmental management and compliance.
The program is developing and testing the basic
elements of state-of-the-art environmental
management systems, developing third-party
auditing and self-certification procedures and
establishing validation measures to ensure
public accountability for results. For example,
the John Roberts Company, a small lithographic
printer in Minneapolis, Minnesota that has
been selected as a pilot facility for the program,
is demonstrating the value of "mentoring" as a
means for sharing information on environmen-
tal auditing with other small businesses. For
further information, call Tai-ming Chang at
(202) 564-5081.
Money-Saving Pollution
Prevention Programs
EPA has established voluntary, results-oriented
programs that foster industry-government
partnerships. These programs move away from
the adversarial, litigation-prone strategies of the
past and instead promote solutions that busi-
nesses can use immediately to prevent poUution
and save money. They assist businesses in
identifying previously unrecognized losses
associated with waste, and together they are
projected to save over $60 billion in energy
costs by the year 2000, while creating jobs in
efficiency and other emerging industries.
Among the programs are: Green Lights, which
provides technical assistance in installing
energy-efficient lighting; Waste Wi$e, which
encourages voluntary prevention and recycling
of business waste; Climate' Wise, a public
recognition program EPA runs with the Depart-
ment of Energy to stimulate greenhouse gas
emission reductions across all sectors of the
economy; and Natural Gas Star, which is
reducing methane losses from gas transmission
lines and coal mines.
IV. EPA Program Office Highlights
The Office of Water
The Small Business Administration has raised
concerns on behalf of small businesses about
EPA's Storm Water Program, and has stated
that point source dischargers of storm water
should not be required to have a National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(MPDES) permit. In response, on March 29,
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1995, Administrator Browner signed
a direct final rule clarifying the permitting
requirements for all phase II storm water
dischargers. Under this rule, only those storm
water dischargers specifically designated by
their permitting authority as causing water
quality problems are required to immediately
obtain a NPDES permit.
A public Federal Advisory Committee will
review the need for NPDES storm water
discharge permits for all other phase II dis-
chargers, including small business. EPA is
establishing a subcommittee to provide advice
and input on the scope and requirements of a
phase II storm water program. This subcom-
mittee will include representatives of all
affected stakeholders, including the small
business community. EPA will propose a phase
II regulation in two and a half years as an
outcome of this process, and will promulgate
regulations in four years.
The Office of Water is also establishing new
priorities for rulemaking in the drinking water
regulatory program based on the most signifi-
cant health risks. To lay the groundwork for
this effort, the Office is reassessing health risks
posed by contaminants in drinking water and
consulting with all stakeholders, including small
businesses, on regulatory priorities and ap-
proaches. EPA is also working with water
suppliers and States to develop a voluntary
program to improve the treatment of drinking
water to reduce the occurrence of bacterial and
other microbiological pathogens. The Office is
also simplifying monitoring requirements to
allow greater "tailoring" of monitoring require-
ments to the existing quality of the drinking
water source.
The Office of Solid Waste and Emer-
gency Response
EPA's Office of Solid Waste and Emergency
Response is conducting a multi-stakeholder
legislative reform initiative to fix provisions of
mn^OW!Ce Conservati°n and Recovery Act
(KCRA) that result in high costs and marginal
environmental benefit. EPA also issued a
RCRA rulemaking to reduce regulatory require-
ments for "universal wastes" (e.g., discarded
batteries, thermostats and certain pesticides).
Small businesses such as retail outlets have
often been reluctant to collect these items for
recycling because of the expense and complexity
of the regulatory requirements. Under this new
rule, they will be exempt from many of the
RCRA requirements pertaining to these wastes.
Outreach to small businesses is being
conducted through the Risk Management
Program Rule workgroup under the Chemical
Emergency Preparedness Program. Meetings
have been held with stakeholders, including
small business association representatives, to
develop the proposed rule and to develop model
risk management plans for small businesses.
The Office is conducting a new Waste
Information Needs (WIN) initiative to take a
comprehensive look at waste information needs
and technologies in order to ensure that the
EPA is collecting the right information and that
the information technologies being used are
appropriate, useful, and user- frienclly. This
project will benefit all information users;'' and
suppliers, including small businesses.
The Office of Prevention, Pesticides,
and Toxic Substances
EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic
Substances is working with the SniEill Business
Administration on alternative reporting thresh-
olds for the Toxic Release Inventory program
that would replace the current two-page certifi-
cation statement with a simpler, multi-chemical
postcard reporting option for some facilities.
The Office is also working with SBA's Small
Business Development Centers to test the
feasibility of integrating technical assistance
with business planning assistance for small
businesses. This change would enhance the
ability of a small business to obtain financing
for pollution prevention projects.
Through a grant to the Center for Econom-
ics, Policy, and Science, the Office is developing
an interactive data base designed to tink
environmental technology entrepreneurs (typi-
cally small business persons) with venture
capitalists.
The Office of Air and Radiation
EPA's Office of Air and Radiation established
the Small Business Assistance Program under
Section 507 of the 1990 Clean Air Ad; Amend-
ments to provide compliance assistance informa-
tion to small businesses through the establish-
ment of State-level assistance programs. These
programs, which have established State-level
Small Business Ombudsmen, help smaU busi-
nesses to determine whether new air regula-
tions apply to them, what options exist for
complying with them (including pollution
prevention), what recordkeeping and reporting
forms are required, and where to find additional
assistance.
The Air Office is working to improve and
streamline its regulatory development process
through earlier participation by stakeholders in
rulemaking activities. The recently proposed
regulation to reduce toxic air pollution from
Wood Furniture Manufacturing Operations was
the result of a successful negotiated rulemaking
process that included industry representatives,
environmental groups, and government agen- '
cies.
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The Office of Research and
Development
EPA's Office of Research and Development has
for the past several years focused its pollution
prevention research program on "Small Busi-
ness and Clean Technologies". A cooperative
effort between EPA and the Small Business
Administration (SBA) is providing pollution
prevention assistance to small businesses
through the SBA's Small Business Develop-
ment Centers in four states (Virginia, Iowa,
Wisconsin, and Texas). Under the project,
small businesses will learn how to use pollution
prevention approaches to both improve their
environmental performance and also reduce
their compliance costs.
Under the Mutual Effort to Reduce Indus-
trial Toxics (MERIT) program, a unique
governmenVindustry partnership in California,
several defense aerospace contractors such as
Grumman-Northrop, General Dynamics and
Hughes Aircraft are undertaking company-to-
company technology transfer to small metal
finishing businesses in the Los Angeles County
area. The assistance emphasizes prevention
and recycling techniques (such as recovery of
chromium from waste rinsewater) that reduce
pollution and control costs for metal finishers.
logical innovation, to engage small businesses in
helping to meet federal R&D needs, to increase
private sector commercialization of innovations
derived from federal R&D, and to foster and
encourage participation by minority and disad-
vantaged persons in technological innovation.
Pollution prevention and pollution control for
selected pollutants are among the topics tar-
geted by the SBIR program.
One-Stop Relief: The EPA
Small Business Ombudsman
The EPA Small Business Ombudsman assists
small business owners across the country by:
• Providing multi-media compliance information
through a hotline, publications, and audio-visual
materials.
• Working with EPA technical experts to
respond to regulatory questions and other
inquiries from small businesses.
• Tracking EPA policies and regulations affect-
ing small businesses, and advocating small
business concerns inside EPA.
• Keeping in touch with small business "um-
brella" organizations, industry trade associa-
tions, and government entities.
EPA's Small Business Ombusdman provides
small businesses with "one-stop" assistance.
Small business owners are welcome and encour-
aged to call with questions or concerns between
8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Eastern Standard
Time.
For assistance, call (800) 368-5888 In
the Washington, DC Area call (703)
305-5938. Fax: (703) 305-6462.
EPA and the Department of Commerce's
National Institute for Standards and Technol-
ogy (NIST) have initiated a joint program to
assist small and medium sized manufacturers
through NIST sponsored Manufacturing
Technology Centers around the country. The
goal of this multi-faceted national program is to
enable smaller manufacturers to become more
environmentally competitive through improved
manufacturing techniques, energy management
practices and pollution prevention opportunities.
Over the past twelve years, EPA and other
federal agencies have actively participated in
the Small Business Innovative Research
(SBIR) Program. This program is one of the
most competitive R&D programs in the federal
government. It is designed to stimulate techno-
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