DEEP Making Progress Improving State’s Regulatory Climate
For years, businesses have urged the state to achieve greater compliance with environmental regulations by helping companies understand and comply with them—and saving the time-consuming and expensive formal enforcement process for significant or repeat violators.
Taking a strong interest in the concept, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) last year developed a pilot based on it for the agency’s hazardous waste program.
But launching the program required approval from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)–whose Washington, D.C., enforcement office is not exactly known for innovation.
In June, however, the EPA approved DEEP’s request to begin a small business enforcement policy, effective June 14. The policy allows DEEP to waive penalties for first-time violations of hazardous waste laws and regulations that are neither criminal nor willful in nature and do not pose a significant threat to human health or the environment.
Many small businesses experience difficulty trying to comply with every detail of Connecticut’s hazardous waste rules. The rules are voluminous and complex and get tangled up with federal hazardous waste rules.
Small businesses just don’t have the resources to work through this cumbersome legal maze that changes regularly, especially at the federal level.
<a href=”http://www.ct.gov/deep/lib/deep/waste_management_and_disposal/hazardous_waste/rcra_small_business_enforcement_policy.pdf” target=”_blank”>DEEP’s new policy defines small business as a business entity, including affiliates, that’s independently owned and operated and employs, at the time of the initial compliance inspection, fewer than 50 full-time employees.
Specifically, the new policy allows for a waiver of the so-called gravity-based portion of a penalty (relating to the actual or potential harm associated with the violation) and requires the small business to correct the violations (through a consent order) within a reasonable period of time.
DEEP still has the discretion to assess a fine if it determines the company gained an economic advantage from noncompliance.
But with DEEP estimating the average gravity-based portion of a hazardous waste enforcement action against a small business at approximately $20,000 to $30,000, the new program could be an important step in improving Connecticut’s environmental regulatory climate for small businesses.
DEEP hopes that with demonstrated success of the pilot program, this new approach to enforcement can expand beyond just the hazardous waste program.
Companies can find more information about the program here.
For more information, contact CBIA’s Eric Brown at 860.244.1926 or eric.brown@cbia.com.
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