Small Business Compliance Policy

The Small Business Compliance Policy defines small businesses and small governments as those that have one hundred or fewer people working for it. The EPA will waive 100 percent of a small business penalty, but retains the right to seek the full amount of any significant benefit the business obtained from its violation. There are also provisions for waiving penalties if the small business cannot pay. ... 

Small businesses may also qualify for the Audit Policy s penalty mitigation, but because the standards in the Small Business Compliance Policy are so much easier to meet, there are only limited situations in which a small business would opt to prove the higher standards in the Audit Policy. These situations are when a violation involves criminal activity, because in that case a company can receive penalty mitigation imder the Audit Policy, but cannot receive penalty mitigation imder the Small Business Compliance Policy. Similarly, if a small business has two or more unrelated environmental violations in the prior five years, it would not qualify for penalty mitigation under the Small Business Compliance Pohcy but it could qualify for mitigation under the Audit Policy. In both of these circumstances a small business should try to meet the Audit Policy requirements. 

EPA may choose to address multi-facility violations through a combination of the Audit Policy and the Small Business Compliance Policy. 

The principal elements to meet to get the benefits of the Small Business Compliance Policy are voluntary discovery, prompt disclosure, expeditious correction, no relevant history of violations, no serious harm, and no criminal activities. Each of these is described below. 

See the Small Business Compliance Policy, 65 Fed. Reg. 19629 (Apr. 11, 2001) effective March 11, 2000, available through http //www.epa.gov/compliance/incentives/smallbusi-ness/index.html. This policy implements 223 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Actofl996, 5U.S.C. 601. 

To achieve greater compliance, U.S. EPA also offers compliance assistance through numerous policies, including Final Policy on Compliance Incentives for Small Businesses and Incentives for Self-Policing Discovery, Disclosure, Correction, and Prevention of Violations. 

Id. at 1, 5. There is an inconsistent statement at page 4 of the Small Business Policy, to the effect that The Small Business Policy applies only to violations discovered through audits and during government sponsored on-site compliance assistance activities. However, that appears to be contrary to the intent of the Small Business Policy. 

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