State Innovation Grant Program:      Nevada
                           Instituting the Nevada Environmental Results Program (NVERP) for Better
                           Environmental Results in the Dry Cleaning Sector (2005 Competition)
                                                                Project Background:
In 2002 EPAintroduced the State Innovation Grant Program to support efforts
led by state environmental agencies to test innovative approaches for
achieving better environmental results and improved efficiency in permitting
programs. Between 2002 and 2007, the State Innovation Grant program
competition awarded over six million dollars to support 35 state projects that
test permitting innovation for a variety of regulated entities including several
small business sectors. Asummary of the awards by year appears in the table
below.
    State Innovation Grant Program Statistics, 2002-2007
Competition  Proposals  Proposals     Total Program
    Year      Submitted  Selected       Funding ($)
  2002/2003
                                           $618,000
                                         $1.425 Million
                                         $1.479 Million
 Cumulative
                                         $1.243 Million
                                         $1.611 Million
                                         $6.376 Million
"Innovation in Permitting" has been the theme of the State Innovation Grant
competition since its inception. In the last three competition cycles states
received awards for projects in the following three categories:
•  The Environmental Results Program (ERP) is an innovative
  approach to improving environmental performance based on a system
  of the interlocking tools of compliance assistance, self-certification
  (sometimes, where permissible, in lieu of permitting), and
  statistically-based measurement to gauge the performance of an entire
  business sector. The program utilizes a multimedia approach to
  encourage small sources to achieve environmental compliance and
  pollution prevention. (See: http://www.epa.gov/permits/erp/)
•  Environmental Management System (EMS) is a system involving a
  continual cycle of planning, implementing, reviewing and improving the
  processes and actions that an organization undertakes to meet its
  business and environmental goals. EMSs provide organizations of all
  types with a structured system and approach for managing environmental
  and regulatory responsibilities to improve overall environmental
  performance and stewardship. (See: www.epa.gov/ems/info/index.htm)
•  Performance Track is a partnership that recognizes top
  environmental performance among participating US facilities of all types,
  sizes, and complexity, both public and private.
  (See: http://www.epa.gov/performancetrack/)
NCEI has provided awards also for projects testing watershed-based
permitting, and for permit process streamlining in past competitions. For more
information on the history of the programs, including information on solicitations,
state proposals, and project awards, please see the EPA State Innovation
Grants website at htto://www.eDa.aov/innovation/statearants
 Over the past several years environmental compliance by dry
 cleaners has become a focus for the Nevada Department of
 Environmental Protection (NDEP). The population of Nevada
 is predominantly urban but concentrated in the metropolitan
 areas of Reno/Sparks in Washoe County and Las Vegas/
 Henderson in Clark County. Eighty-seven percent of Nevada's
 population resides in these  two counties and a wide variety of
 air and water quality concerns exists in these communities. These
 areas were selected for participation in a Dry Cleaner
 Environmental Results Program (ERP) because dry cleaners
 tend to concentrate in metropolitan communities, and are subject
 to regulation through water discharge pretreatment programs,
 local air quality management programs, and hazardous waste
 management programs of the district health departments.

 The State legislature established a remediation district in Washoe
 County with a tax assessment used to investigate and remediate
 historic Perchloroethyleiie (PCE) contamination of grouiiclwater
 in the Truckee Meadows. Sewer sampling indicated elevated levels
 of PCE in sewers downstream of dry cleaners (similar concerns
 about PCE contamination  near primary sewer lines in Clark
 County also exist). The resulting attention to the dry cleaning
 sector has brought local  agencies  together  in improving
 environmental performance of the dry cleaner sector to protect
 groundwater from future contamination.
Project Description
 With resources provided through a US EPA State Innovation
 Grant, NDEP is adapting the dry cleaning ERP model originally
 developed by Massachusetts and later implemented in Michigan
 for use in the two most highly populated counties of Nevada.
 For NDEP, the adoption of  a dry cleaner ERP will require
 collaboration with county regulatory agencies to transform local
 single-media agency programs into an integrated, multi-agency,
 multi-media ERP for this sector.  The project requires
 establishment of a baseline  of dry cleaner environmental
 compliance and performance, outreach and assistance to dry
 cleaners, a multi-media self-certification program for dry cleaners,
 and a follow-up assessment that measures improvements in
 dry cleaner compliance and environmental performance. The
 project will concentrate on the metropolitan areas of Reno/
 Sparks in Washoe County, and Northern Las Vegas/Las Vegas/
 Henderson in Clark County.  The project provides state and
 local agencies with experience in developing and implementing
 an ERP and collaborating in a multi-agency framework to address
                          NCEI
                          NATIONAL CENTER FOR
                          ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATION

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 improvement of environmental regulation and environmental
 performance through innovation. The NDEP dry cleaner ERP
 will work in conjunction with the Nevada Small Business
 Development Center (NSBDC)  Business  Environmental
 Program (BEP) and the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR).
 The ERP will address regulatory requirements established under
 the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), die Clean
 Water Act (CWA), and die Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA).

 Year One:
 Washoe County:
    •   Establish state/local agency ERP workgroup.
    •   Develop multi-media inspection checklist and EBPIs
       and train inspectors on use of checklist/EBPIs.
    •   Conduct baseline inspections and compile inspection
       results.
    •   Develop compliance manual and compliance forms and
       deliver materials in a dry cleaner compliance/BMPs
       workshop.
 Clark Count)"

    •   Establish state/local agency ERP workgroup.

 Year Two:
 Washoe County:
    •   Implement compliance self-certification/return to
       compliance form program.

    •   Targeted inspections of dry cleaners.

 Clark County:
    •   Expand project to Clark County.
    •   Announce project, create ERP stakeholder focus group.
    •   Customize multi-media inspection checklist and EBPIs
       for Clark County.
    •   Conduct baseline inspections.
    •   Customize compliance manual and compliance forms
       for Clark County jurisdictions and deliver materials
       through dry cleaner compliance/BMPs workshop.

 Year Three:
 Washoe County and Clark County:
    •   Continue implementation of compliance self-
       certification/return to compliance form program.
    •   Post-certification project outcome inspections of dry
       cleaners.
    •   Compile project outcome results.

 Year Two or Three:

 Host ERP information exchange national meeting.

 This grant-funded project is expected to lastuntiljune 2010.
               Connection to EPA's Goals

                The proposed ERP is aligned with EPA's Innovation Strategy
                by addressing the priority areas of main taining water quality by
                preventing the contamination of drinking water and by
                addressing concerns of PCE contamination from sewer lines,
                and the development and demonstration of an ERP. The ERP
                objective of improved multi-media compliance and
                environmental performance meets EPA's Strategic Goals (Goal
                1) by reducing air emission  of PCE through improved
                compliance with the  CAAA and NESHAP for PCE Dry
                Cleaning,  (Goal 2) by reducing the risk of groundwater
                contamination with PCE through improved compliance with
                RCRA and CWA pre-treatment programs, (Goal 3) by reducing
                the potential for  soil  contamination and minimizing waste
                generation, (Goal 4) by protecting human health from chemical
                risks  associated with PCE, and (Goal  5) by improving
                environmental performance through pollution prevention and
                innovation.
                 Project Contacts:
                 Jim Trent
                 Bureau of Waste Management
                 Nevada Division of Environmental Protection
                 901 S. Stewart St., Ste. 4001
                 Carson City, NV 89701-5249
                 (775) 687-9478; FAX (775) 687-5856
                 jttent@ndep.nv.gov


                 Kate Nooney
                 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — Region 9
                 75 Hawthorne Street
                 San Francisco, CA 94105
                 (415) 947-4266; FAX (415) 947-3519
                 iiooiiey.kate@epa.gov


                 Scott Fontenot
                 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
                 Washington, DC 20460 (MC 1807T)
                 (202) 566-2236; FAX (202) 566-2212
                 foiitenot.scott@epa.gov
                Program Contact:
                Sherri Walker
                State Innovation Grant Program
                U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
                Washington, DC 20460 (MC1807T)
                (202)-566-2186; FAX (202) 566-2220
                walker.sherri@epa.gov
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Policy,
Economics and Innovation
(1807T)
    October 2007
EPA-100-F-07-038

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