State Innovation Grant Program: Maine
Stormwater Environmental Results Program (ERP): Voluntary Certification Pilot
Program to Reduce Stormwater Pollution from Existing Commercial Businesses'
Impervious Surfaces (2007 Competition)
ie innovation urani rrogram 10 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
ittD://www.eDa.aov/innovation/statear
Project Background:
The Maine Department for Environmental Protection (ME
DEP) and Massachusetts Department of Environmental
Protection (MA DEP) face serious water quality issues in
their urban watersheds coming from non-point source
Stormwater pollution from existing developments. In both
States, new and redeveloped properties are required to
obtain Stormwater permits and adopt best management
practices (BMP) for Stormwater management under
those permits. Developments completed before the
imposition of the permit program, however, are not
required to obtain these permits. Both states will attempt
to address issues related to Stormwater run-off from
unpermitted ("grandfathered") facilities through this
project by creating incentives for and promoting the use
of proven Stormwater quality management solutions (e.g.,
BMP technologies) at these facilities to improve water
quality in impaired urban streams.
The ME DEP received a US EPA State Innovation Grant in
the 2007 competition to implement and evaluate different
ERP strategies designed to reduce Stormwater pollution.
The MA DEP will be a collaborator in this project. This
project will 1) test the effectiveness of a voluntary ERP
approach for controlling non-point sources, and 2) test
different strategies to determine the best approach in
attracting business participation.
Project Description
The ME DEP and MA DEP project team is implementing
an ERP-based, voluntary, self-certification storm water
control program to address run-off water quality issues in
heavily used parking areas at existing commercial
developments. The project team will assess the
outcomes by pilot testing two different approaches that
will allow the states to evaluate the relative effectiveness
of relying upon "internal" or "external" drivers in
encouraging behavior change, demonstrated by the
voluntary installation of BMP technologies.
The main objective is to determine whether an ERP
approach can be as-or-more effective than traditional
NCE
NATIONAL CENTER FOR
ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATION
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enforcement and permitting programs in achieving
stormwater pollution reductions. This approach should also
result in identifiable reductions of pollutants into receiving
waters (through the installation of additional stormwater
BMP technologies) and an analysis of the relative
effectiveness of the two strategic incentive approaches.
The project began with the award of the grant on October
1, 2007 and will take four years to complete.
Connection to EPA's Goals
This project directly supports EPA's Strategic Goals (http://
www.epa.gov/cfo/plan/plan.htm):
Goal 1 - protecting and improving air quality through the
implementation of anti-idling incentives (Maine only);
Goal 2 - restoring and maintaining aquatic ecosystems by
improving water quality through the adoption of storm water
management BMP technologies through the ERP;
Goal 4 - protecting, sustaining and restoring communities
and ecosystems by improving water quality in urban
streams and protecting the health of urban communities.
Goal 5 - protecting human health and the environment
through improved compliance, pollution prevention and
environmental stewardship through the use of ERP tools.
The project further promotes the use of cross-goals through
integrated assessment of watersheds and by making
information more accessible to the public and other
stakeholders via the internet and through utilization of an
automated ERP database.
Project Contacts:
For more specific information on the Maine State
Innovation Grant, please contact one of the
individuals below:
Julie. M. Churchill, Project Manager
Office of Innovation and Assistance
Maine Department of Environmental Protection
17 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04330-0017
(207) 287-7881 FAX: (207) 287-2814
julie.m.churchill@maine.gov
Marge Miranda , EPA Project Officer
USEPAREGION 1
1 Congress Street
Suite 1100
Boston, MA02114
(617)918-1825 FAX: (617)918-1809
Miranda.marge@epa.gov
Josh Secunda, EPA Region 1 Technical
Liaison
USEPAREGION 1
1 Congress Street
Suite 1100
Boston, MA02114
(617)918-1736 FAX: (617)918-1809
Secunda.josh@epa.gov
For more specific information on the ME State Innovation
Grant, please visit MEDEP Office of Innovation ERP website
at http://www.maine.gov/dep/innovation/erp/stormwater/
index.htm
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
Anne Leiby, EPA Region 1 Technical
Liaison
USEPAREGION 1
1 Congress Street
Suite 1100
Boston, MA02114
(617) 918-1076 FAX: (617) 918-1809
Leiby.anne@epa.gov
Scott Bowles, NCEI Technical Liaison
National Center for Environmental Innovation (MC1807T)
US Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20460
(202)566-2208 FAX: (202)566-2220
Bowles.scott@epa.gov
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Policy,
Economics and Innovation
(1807T)
June 2008
EPA-100-F-08-048
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