State Innovation Grant Program: Delaware
Auto Body Certification Project (2003 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:
In early 2003, the Delaware Department of Natural
Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC)
received a State Innovation Grant to launch a
voluntary Environmental Results Program (ERP).
ERP combines compliance assistance, self-
certification, and statistically-based performance
measurement through agency inspections to
improve environmental compliance within a target
sector. DNREC focused its ERP on the auto body
repair sector, which is comprised mainly of small- to
medium-sized businesses. Unlike the larger
corporate-owned chains, these smaller facilities
usually do not have the resources to hire
environmental consultants to help them comply with
environmental laws. Since most facility operators in
Delaware were unaware of their environmental
obligations and were operating without permits and/
or illegally, the auto body sector presented an ideal
candidate for a small business-focused ERP.
DNREC's overall goal in implementing this ERP was
to improve environmental compliance among auto
body repair shops, while at the same time increasing
the cost-effectiveness of the state's regulatory
program. A traditional approach to regulating this
sector would have required a large number of state
inspectors to systematically visit every auto body
repair shop and spend time educating each shop
owner individually about the compliance
requirements. In contrast, the ERP allowed a
relatively small regulatory staff to supplement
operator compliance self-certification with statistically-
based sampling inspections. As with all ERP
projects, DNREC's auto body sector program was
designed to ensure the reliability of the self-
certification program by providing information and
education to all facilities through workshops and
outreach materials.
NCE
NATIONAL CENTER FOR
ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATION
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Since DNREC's ERP is a voluntary program, the
agency developed a number of incentives to
encourage auto body shops to participate, including: a
simplified air permit application specific to the auto
body sector, a waived permit application fee, an
amnesty period for shops in non-compliance but
participating in the program, and free technical
assistance and pollution prevention audits. These
incentives, along with focused outreach and
compliance assistance for auto body shops, helped
achieve a 68 percent participation rate in this voluntary
program within this sector.
Project Description
DNREC's ERP initiative included several components.
First, DNREC established baseline compliance rates
by inspecting a statistically-based sampling of auto
body shops to determine their compliance with
environmental requirements. DNREC inspectors also
gathered information about other business practices,
such as adoption of pollution prevention measures that
provide an indication of the shops' overall
environmental performance.
Next, DNREC conducted a series of educational
workshops to inform shops about environmental
compliance requirements and voluntary best
management practices that reduce the environmental
impact of auto body repair shops. In addition, DNREC
developed a workbook and other materials explaining
all applicable environmental requirements for the auto
body sector in plain language.
DNREC also provided shop owners and operators with
self-certification forms that presented a series of plain-
language questions designed to help them determine
if they were in compliance with the applicable
environmental requirements. If the owners/operators
determined they were out of compliance, they were
expected to fix the problem(s) as soon as possible.
Following this education, outreach, and self-certification
process, DNREC conducted follow-up inspections on
another random sample of facilities to assess the
extent to which the program had improved compliance
and environmental performance.
Results
To measure the program's success, DNREC
established indicators of environmental compliance
and performance, collectively termed Environmental
Business Practice Indicators (EBPIs). DNREC
measured changes in the EBPIs between the baseline
and follow-up inspections to assess the impact of the
ERP. DNREC reported positive results from their pilot
ERP program, including significant increases in
compliance and voluntary adoption of best
management practices (see Table 1).
Table 1
Environmental Issue
Air pollution control
requirements
Water pollution requirements
Hazardous waste management
requirements
Shops undertaking voluntary
pollution prevention best
management practices
Average %
Improvement in EBPIs
24%
40%
42%
19%
In addition, the program also helped DNREC improve
its ability to monitor ongoing environmental progress
through permits. For example, of the auto body shops
that participated in the ERP, 87 percent submitted an
application for an air pollution permit - a requirement
that most shops did not know about prior to the ERP.
Overall, DNREC found ERP to be a success, and the
state began a second-round of facility self-certifications
in summer of 2007.
Connection to EPA's Goals
This program directly supports EPA's Strategic Goal
#5, focused on compliance and environmental
stewardship, by promoting an innovative approach to
improve compliance and pollution prevention. The
project also supports EPA's Strategic Goal #1, to
protect and improve the air, Goal #3, land preservation
and restoration through improved waste management,
as well as EPA's Cross-Goal Strategy of promoting
innovation and collaboration with states.
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Project Contacts:
For more specific information on the
Delaware State Innovation Grant, please
contact one of the individuals below:
Kimberly Chesser
Delaware Department of Natural Resources and
Environmental Control
Dover, DE
302.739.9909
kimberly.chesser@state.de.us
David Byro
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency- Regions
Philadelphia, PA
215.814.5563
byro.david@epa.gov
Scott Bowles
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Washington, DC
202.566.2208
bowles.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)
February 2008
EPA-100-F-08-015
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