Projects & Tools for State Programs

Calculating Compliance Rates

The ECC is developing a standard way to calculate and display compliance rate information. While states are not yet able to calculate statistically valid compliance rates, it is possible to calculate a compliance rate for inspected facilities. These compliance rates, in conjunction with inspection information, can help in the assessment of compliance and enforcement programs and in program planning. Some ECC member states have piloted this approach for programs in their states. The current draft Excel spreadsheet and instructions are available here and viewers are encouraged to use the template and send comments to Shelley Metzenbaum.
  Excel Template for Calculating Compliance Rates
  Template Instructions
  Calculating and Communicating Environmental Compliance Rates (ECOStates, Spring 2003)
  Using Compliance Rates to Manage (ECOStates, Fall 2004)

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Performance Measures for Compliance and Enforcement

The ECC is identifying performance based outcome measures for compliance and enforcement programs. The right measures can help environmental agencies better manage their programs by providing information that can be used to evaluate programs and initiatives, allocate scarce resources, and manage towards outcomes rather than process.

The ECC and member states have identified a number of measures, many of which are based on data that is currently collected. The ECC is also working to encourage the use of these measures and the development of agency systems that support and incorporate the use of these measures. The ECC encourages you to send comments on these papers to Shelley Metzenbaum, Executive Director.

Congressional Hearing on EPA and State Enforcement of Water Laws

  Hearing (Hearing on EPA and State Enforcement of Water Laws, October 2003)
 Testimony(Dr. Shelley Metzenbaum's testimony)
In October 2003, the House Committee on Government Reform Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Natural Resources, and Regulatory Affairs held a Hearing on EPA and State Enforcement of Water Laws. This hearing took place following press coverage suggesting that EPA and the states may not be adequately enforcing the nation's water laws. The testimony discusses the historical and remaining obstacles to effective implementation of water law and other environmental laws. It also discusses encouraging EPA and State efforts to use environmental and compliance information to effectively manage regulatory programs in ways deserving of Congressional support.

Articles

  More Nutritious Beans (The Environmental Forum, March/April 2003 Shelley Metzenbaum)
This article provides examples of performance indicators that can be used to help find problems, measure the effectiveness of programs, help in setting priorities and targeting activities, and reporting to the public, lawmakers and other agencies. This is a practical look at performance measures that most agencies have the capability of generating now, and to help in the planning for future systems and processes.

  Realizing the Value of a Permit Compliance System Upgrade
ECC working paper suggesting ways EPA might upgrade its Permit Compliance System.

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Making Environmental Information Accessible and Optimizing Use

Making the environmental information that can be used to better manage compliance and enforcement programs more accessible and useful is an ECC goal. A vast amount of environmental information is currently collected. The challenge for regulatory agencies is to

• efficiently collect the most useful information
• ensure that the collected information is analyzed and used to support program implementation and management
• use the information to identify best practices and to support benchmarking
• to communicate the information in meaningful ways to the public and legislators

Managing Environmental Information Forum

Call for presenters for Managing Environmental Information 2005.

Agenda and Presentations (June 22, 2004)
The second annual Forum on Managing Environmental Information, hosted by Governing Magazine and the Environmental Compliance Consortium, brought over eighty environmental officials from all levels of government together to share experience with new environmental information technologies and new approaches to environmental information management. Key topics this year included using rugged laptops and PDAs to conduct inspections, using aerial photography to measure wetlands loss, sharing monitoring data electronically among states and communities, electronic submission and access to permit information and discharge monitoring reports, and using data-driven decision-making to manage with scarce resources. This Forum was made possible through the generous support of enfoTech, a partnership with Governing magazine, and the assistance of numerous other organizations. You may find moreinformation on the Governing magazine website at,  http://www.governing.com/govconf.htm#mei

  Synopsis (May 28, 2003)
Agenda and Presentations (May 28, 2003)
The ECC’s first annual forum on environmental information was held on May 28th in Atlanta Georgia in conjunction with Governing Magazine’s Managing Technology 2003 Conference. The Forum focused on helping participants improve environmental and compliance outcomes through better management of environmental information. The topics covered include integrated compliance systems, mobile technologies, complaint tracking, compliance reporting, and more. These are a few of the comments from Forum participants: "Excellent information and topics, excellent speakers", "Informative, met new people", and "Good ROI, worth coming back."

State Environmental Information and Report Portal

The ECC is creating a portal to web based state environmental information to make it easier for the states and the public to find and use the information. The long term objective is to provide easy access to information on environmental and compliance conditions, and on the performance of state programs. This includes annual environmental reports, other reports with relevant information (environmental conditions; strategic plans; environmental performance including outcomes, interim outcomes, activities, and inputs; compliance and enforcement), web-accessible databases and information on outcome, cost, and activity. The portal is being developed in stages; the first elements are state annual environmental reports, which will be followed by state compliance and enforcement reports. link to State Report Portal

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Tools

Response C.O.M.P.A.S.S.

The Response C.O.M.P.A.S.S., or Compliance Options for Managing Performance And Surpassing Standards, is an ECC tool that helps environmental agencies explain to the public how we reach our decisions when responding to environmental problems at specific facilities.

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