EPAs Enforcement Response Policies

Office of Compliance Monitoring, Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substances. Enforcement Response Policy for Test Rules Under Section 4 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (May 28,1986). 

Toxic and Pesticides Enforcement Division, Office of Regulatory Enforcement, Office of En forcement and CompUance Assurance, The Enforcement Response Pohcy For Reporting And Recordkeeping Rules And Requirements for TSCA Sections 8,12 and 13 (Mar. 1,1999) [hereinafter Reporting Rule ERP]. 

Amended TSCA 5 Enforcement Response Pohcy as amended and restated (June 8, 1989) and further amended in Memorandum from John J. Neylan, Director, Policy and Grants Division. Office of Compliance Monitoring, to Michael J. Walker, Enforcement Counsel. Toxics Litigation Division, (July 1,1993) [hereinafter 5 ERP]. 

Memorandum from Jesse Baskerville, Director, Toxics and Pesticides Enforcement Division, Oftice of Regulatory Enforcement, EPA, Interim Guidance for Enforcing the TSCA 402 Abatement Rule Firm and Lead Abatement Professional Certification Requirements (Mar. 8. 2000) and EPA, Office of Enforcement and Comphance Assurance, Office of Civil Enforcement, Waste and Chemical Enforcement Division. Section 1018 - Disclosure Rule Enforcement Response and Penalty Pohcy (Dec. 2007). 

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For TSCA violations, gravity based penalties are the penalties that the EPA calculates applying a series of policies on penalties applicable to the various types of regulatory violations. These policies are the EPAs Enforcement Response Policies. For an in-depth discussion of the Enforcement Response Policies, see Chapter 14, Penalties and Enforcement... 

EPA has issued an Enforcement Response Policy (ERP) for 4 violations that follows the basic format of aU its TSCA ERPs. Each type of violation is categorized by its nature, extent, and circumstances and then a monetary penalty is calculated and upwards and dovmwards adjustment factors are determined. All 4 violations are assigned a nature of hazard assessment violations. EPA assigns higher penalties to violations involving studies of longer duration simply because they will disrupt the EPA s schedule more significantly. 

EPA, Enforcement Response Poficy for TSCA 4 Test Rules. (May 28, 1986), available at http //www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/policies/civil/tsca/tscasec4ruleserp-052886.pdf. 

Quarantining also shows that the company has taken all steps reasonably necessary to mitigate the violation, which can help to reduce penalties, as discussed in connection with the EPA s Enforcement Response Policies and Audit Policies, infra. 

The statute itself requires the EPA to take various factors into account in establishing a penalty. These are the nature, circumstances, extent, and gravity of the violation or violations and, with respect to the violator, ability to pay, effect on ability to continue to do business, any history of prior such violations, the degree of culpability, and such other matters as justice may require. This list of factors is the subject of detailed discussion in the Enforcement Response Policies, infra. 

The EPA took these mandates into account when it issued its enforcement response policy for AHERA (the AHERA ERP) in 1989, as amended. ... 

TSCA regulations require sellers and landlords to disclose the presence of lead-based paint and lead hazards in target housing. These regulations, usually referred to as the Disclosure Rule, were jointly issued by the EPA and HUD, pursuant to a mandate in Section 1018 of Title X of the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992. The only affirmative act the Disclosure Rule requires is disclosure TSCA does not require landlords and sellers to conduct any lead abatement projects. As the EPA said in the enforcement response policy for the Disclosure Rule, [t]he purpose of the Disclosure Rule is to ensure that individuals and families receive the information necessary to protect themselves and their families from lead-based paint and/or lead-based paint hazards. Because the Disclosure Rule does not require any reduction of lead in homes, it has been criticized as a weak response to a national crisis. On the other hand, the cost of removing lead... 

The EPA has not developed an enforcement response policy specifically for the Renovation, Repair, and Painting Rule or the Pre-Renovation Education Rule. In In the Matter of Millennium Quests, Inc., the Regional Judicial Hearing Officer relied on the enforcement response policy for PCBs in the absence of an enforcement response policy that was directly applicable to the Pre-Renovation Education Rule. 

ERA, Office of Compliance Monitoring, Office of Pesticides and Toxic Substances, Interim Final Enforcement Response Policy for the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (Jan. 31, 1989) AHERA ERP 1-31-89 as amended by Memorandum from Jesse Baskerville, Director, Toxics and Pesticides Enforcement Division, Office of Regulatory Enforcement, EPA, Revision of the AHERA Enforcement Response Policy Civil Penalties for Failure to Conduct Reinspections (Aug. 4, 1998) AHERA ERP Amend 8-4-89... 

The EPA established policies and procedures for calculating the amount of civil penalties for TSCA violations. It maintains a series of Enforcement Response Poficies (ERPs) covering each of the sections of the TSCA statute and describing in great detail how the EPA used a multitude of factors to determine the severity of each type of violation and what the appropriate monetary penalty should be. 

EPA, Office of Enforcement and Comphance Assurance, Office of Civil Enforcement, Waste and Chemical Enforcement Division, Section 1018—Disclosure Rule Enforcement Response and Penalty Policy (Dec. 2007) Lead Disclosure ERP12-07... 

Agency (EPA), which was established in 1970, the same year the first Clean Air Act was passed into law. In 1972 the Clean Water Act became law, and in 1973 the Endangered Species Act became law. Other important federal environmental legislation includes the Resource Consei vation and Recoveiy Act, passed in 1976 the Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 the Nuclear Waste Policy Acts of 1982 and 1987 and the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Acts of 1980 and 1985. From 1980 to 2000 these environmental regulations, and the enforcement efforts of the EPA, have had a much greater impact on decisions made in the energy industiy than all the policy initiatives implemented by the DOE. 

The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970 along with the National Environmental Policy Act, which created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), put some strong measures into air pollution control enforcement. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for implementation of the statutes of this law. The first air pollutants covered by this law of concern to the fuels industry were SOx and NOx. Since the passage of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970, a series of additional U.S. Federal environmental laws affecting various industries have been passed ... 

EPA has indicated that it will not take enforcement actions against individuals related to their exercise of personal responsibility for reporting imder TSCA 8(e) if their employers implement compliance policies and procedures to ensure reporting of substantial risk information. In order to provide that protection to officers and employees, companies must have a policy and procedure for channeling substantial risk information to the person responsible for reporting that information directly to EPA, and a procedure for company processing of substantial risk information. ... 

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