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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