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EPA, COMMONWEALTH LAUNCH NEW ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM

Release Date: 10/06/1998
Contact Information: Leo Kay, EPA Press Office, (617) 918-4154 Andrea Carneiro, Mass DEP Press Office, (617)292-5502

BOSTON - During a tour of an environmentally conscious printing company in Somerville today, EPA-New England Administrator John P. DeVillars and Massachusetts DEP Commissioner David Struhs announced an agreement between the two agencies that will greatly simplify environmental permitting and reporting processes for the regulated community in Massachusetts, and thereby lead to substantial environmental improvements.

The EPA is designating the commonwealth's Environmental Results Program (ERP) a national XL Project, making it the first state in the country to be granted such status.

DEP's Environmental Results Program replaces conventional permits with stringent industry wide environmental performance standards, requiring companies to submit annual certifications signed by a corporate official that the standards are being met. Industry representatives and environmental advocates work with the DEP and EPA to establish standards and the criteria for reporting compliance in specific industrial categories. ERP currently applies to three industrial sectors - printers, dry cleaners and photo processors - and by the end of the year will include 10,000 companies.

The agreement was signed at Ames Specialty Packaging, one of approximately 5,000 companies now participating in the program. DEP estimates that the program will yield significant reductions in the use of smog-forming solvents and alcohol in fountain solutions among commercial printers.

Among the other environmental improvements forecasted, the shift to ERP is expected to reduce wastewater discharges of silver by 99 percent from photo processors, and to achieve a 43 percent reduction in emissions of perchlorethylene from dry cleaners.

Granting ERP official XL status will allow the EPA and DEP to integrate state and federal regulations that may impact the program, and will allow the EPA to begin learning how to apply the lessons of ERP to federal programs.

"Today, we are giving this project EPA's seal of approval in the hopes that we can some day apply similar self-certification programs in other states," DeVillars said. "By improving accountability and increasing flexibility for companies -- as well as providing an extensive amount of technical and pollution prevention assistance -- ERP will achieve superior environmental results at less cost. Kudos go to the commonwealth for devising a program that is appropriately tough, yet allows businesses more leeway in determining the best way to reduce the amount of pollution they produce."

"ERP has revolutionized environmental protection in Massachusetts by letting us focus on real performance results instead of just counting the number of permits issued," said Massachusetts Secretary of the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs Trudy Coxe. "This Project XL agreement will allow us to build on that progress and give companies even greater flexibility to meet and even exceed our environmental standards."

"This program allows us to make more efficient use of both public and private resources, with greater focus on environmental results and corporate accountability," added Struhs. "We're very pleased that EPA has recognized the value of this new approach to streamline the regulatory process and achieve even greater environmental protection."

The commonwealth's program is now the 10th XL (eXcellence and Leadership) program in the country. Announced by President Clinton in 1995 as one of several initiatives designed to reinvent government, XL seeks to test innovative ways of achieving better and more cost effective public health and environmental protection.

ERP gives companies more flexibility in determining the best, most cost effective way of meeting the environmental standards, while freeing up state resources to previously spent reviewing and writing permits to instead focus on providing technical assistance and conducting inspections to ensure compliance.