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The state is Georgia
Regulatory Compliance
Visit the interactive
website EPA in Your State
, and review the state laws for air and water from your state or a state of interest to you. You can find this information under the Environmental Info section of each state’s individual page. After exploring the website and doing any other necessary research, compose an essay that addresses the following topics:
UNIT III STUDY GUIDE
The Process of Developing State
Environmental Laws and Regulations
Course Learning Outcomes for Unit III
Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
3. Describe the regulation promulgation process.
3.1 Discuss state regulations and programs being implemented to solve environmental issues.
5. Discuss the various roles states play in implementing laws and regulations.
5.1 Summarize environmental issues in a specific state.
5.2 Analyze the effectiveness of specific state environmental programs.
5.3 Recommend solutions to environmental issues in a specific state.
Course/Unit
Learning Outcomes
3.1
5.1
5.2
5.3
Learning Activity
Unit Lesson
Webpage: EPA in Your State
Unit III Project
Unit Lesson
Webpage: EPA in Your State
Unit III Project
Unit Lesson
Webpage: EPA in Your State
Unit III Project
Unit Lesson
Webpage: EPA in Your State
Unit III Project
Required Unit Resources
In order to access the following resource, click the link below.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2013). EPA in your state. https://www.epa.gov/home/epa-your-state
Unit Lesson
State Environmental Regulatory Agencies
In this unit, we will discuss jurisdictional issues and relationships with environmental regulatory agencies.
Rulemaking of environmental laws at the state level follows a similar process to that of federal law. When it
comes to aligning federal and state environmental laws, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gives
states the option to implement and administer federal environmental law with oversight from the EPA. An
obvious question is to ask why a state would be willing to take on the expense and staffing requirements for
administering a federal law. The answer has to do with the severe consequences related to enforcement.
There is a strategic advantage for states in the way that noncompliance is addressed. States that administer
the federal programs can work with their industrial manufacturing base and take steps to remediate issues
while protecting jobs and the tax base for local communities. They also have the option to decide how
assessed fines are used—whether they go into state coffers or back to the company to be used to fix the
problems and issues that led up to the noncompliance. When the federal government manages enforcement,
the funds often go into federal coffers, resulting in some industries closing down and relocating out of the area
OSH 2302, Introduction to Regulatory Compliance
1
or country. A second benefit is how audits are done at the facility. The federal UNIT
government
only
looks at
x STUDY
GUIDE
federal requirements. They follow the letter of the law, they have their own interpretation
on how regulatory
Title
provisions are interpreted, and they are more willing to let the consequences fall where they will. When states
own the audit process, they can control how compliance is defined when the requirements are ambiguous for
the situation, and they also have the opportunity to view state specific requirements in addition to those of
federal legislation.
States have the right to customize and add provisions to the federal legislation. What states cannot do is to
take away from the federal requirements. The provisions they add can be functional equivalents of federal
regulations that fit better into regional practices and the way that business is conducted in the state. This
serves as a reminder to consultants looking to come into a state to perform an environmental audit (e.g., ISO
audits and responsible care audits). It is important to check both the statutes and regulatory requirements of
federal and state agencies when preparing audit protocols for industrial sites. Some states have taken steps
to add provisions that establish a separate list of chemicals of concern requiring special attention. For
example, California has developed regulations around Proposition 65 requiring companies to notify customers
using container labels that the product contains a carcinogen or a reproductive toxicant (California Office of
Environmental Health Hazard Assessment [OEHHA], 2014).
A notification can be made about any level, and no level is too small. Even if the substance to be notified is in
the product as an impurity at 0.001%, a Proposition 65 warning label is required. The state of California
chooses not to make an interpretation for citizens on what level is significant leaving it to the consumer to
decide if this level is relevant. For a limited number of chemicals where test data is available, California is
willing to use this information to establish a level of significance, but they will not do so using read-across or
structure-analysis models (OEHHA, 2014). The Proposition 65 requirement allows citizens to bring litigation
against companies who place products on the market without a Proposition 65 warning label. There are many
lawyers who have made a healthy living filing lawsuits against noncompliant companies. It is not uncommon
for a company to sell a product to a customer in Michigan only to have them repurpose the product and send
it to their customer in California. If the container sold in Michigan does not have a Proposition 65 warning, the
manufacturer of the product may get sued in California. The defendant will often end up settling out of court,
as it is often cheaper to do a buyout than to litigate the noncompliance in court.
States like New Jersey have extra provisions enforcing regulations that they believe are important to their
population involving “right-to-know” provisions for products sold in their jurisdiction (State of New Jersey,
Department of Health, n.d.). Companies selling hazardous products in New Jersey have to meet specific
labeling and notification requirements beyond that required by federal regulations. Multiply this by 50 states,
and it is not hard to see the challenges that manufacturers face selling products in the 50 states where each
state has a slightly different set of rules. The EPA watches state initiatives to identify regional concerns and
trends. While each requirement has its own merits and justification, the EPA is the great unifier. When
multiple states have aligned on an issue and they begin to implement special regulations ahead of EPA, the
agency will seek to align these interests and incorporate them in a future regulation. Once the EPA publishes
their unification rule, states are required to sunset their requirements and align with the federal rule.
However, until the time comes when the EPA writes a rule for a specific issue, states are free to move forward
on their own issuing regulations and requirements to satisfy their citizens and special interest groups. This
process shows one way that states and the EPA communicate on issues and priorities that the EPA is
requested to take to Congress to consider the merits of the rule for the nation.
Each state has its own regulatory processes for passing legislation into law and then into regulations to be
administered by designated agencies responsible for protecting the environment. One of the most active is
the State of Washington’s Department of Ecology. In Washington, environmental statutory authority is given
by the legislature when it gives permission to a state agency to write and adopt a rule on an environmental
subject (Washington State Department of Ecology, n.d.).
As with most states, the state of Washington has its own list of definitions for key terms. These do not always
align among the 50 states. Certain phrases and vocabulary common to Washington may not be the same as
used in other states. This makes it challenging to compare requirements and to extrapolate regulatory
interpretations about the rules in Washington to other states like California and New York.
OSH 2302, Introduction to Regulatory Compliance
2
Washington state has a three-step process for turning a law into a functional regulation.
The first
phase is to
UNIT x STUDY
GUIDE
make an announcement to the public that the agency is intending to amend, repeal,
Title or adopt a new
regulation. A brief description of the legislative intent is given as is the contact information of the lead agency
(Washington State Department of Ecology, n.d.).
The second phase proceeds to publish the proposal at least 30 days after the announcement is formally
made. The proposal is a draft of the rule giving a brief overview of the rule, a copy of the proposed text,
identification of the lead agency, the proposed enter-into-force date, and information about planned public
hearings. During this time, all rules start to receive an economic analysis looking at the cost-benefit analysis
and an analysis of the least-burdensome alternative. These are published on the state website. The impact on
small businesses is also a part of the analysis as is determining the maximum net benefit to the environment
(Washington State Department of Ecology, n.d.).
Formal public comments are considered by the lead agency. Except for public hearings, written responses
are necessary for a concern to be considered. For rules where substantial issues are raised, regulators can
set up committees to work through the issues to reach a resolution. Lead agencies prepare a formal written
response to key comments explaining the issue, how they were considered and the final determination made
by the regulators. Should the regulation ever be litigated in state courts, these comments are valuable source
documents for lawyers and the courts.
The final step in the legislative process is to officially adopt the rule after the agency director signs the
document. The rule will enter into force 31 days after the rule is signed. However, in special cases,
emergency rules immediately become effective, and rules that are expedited have a 45-day comment period
after which the rule comes into effect 31 days later (Washington State Department of Ecology, n.d.).
Some states have set up alliances to address regional concerns. One of these groups is the Great Lakes
Commission (GLC), which includes Canadian provinces and the states surrounding the Great Lakes. The
GLC has established a set of priorities intended to restore the water quality of the lakes and to prevent further
deterioration of water quality. One of the biggest issues is the runoff of fertilizers from surrounding farmland.
The runoff contains phosphorus that promotes algal blooms that cover the surface of the lake (Great Lakes
Commission, 2019). While alive, some species of algae will produce toxic substances. After they die, the
bacteria in the lakes begin to feast on the algae, consuming the dissolved oxygen (DO) in the water to support
their feeding frenzy. When the DO levels go from 7.0 ppm to a value
