This document contains references to information on sector-based state and local environmental programs and information resources, arranged alphabetically by state.
Alabama Department of Environmental Management
The overall organization of the ADEM follows along the traditional media-specific lines. However, several sector-specific subdivisions appear within the media-based divisions. Examples include industrial chemical, industrial mineral, and petroleum sections within the Engineering Services Branch of the Air Division,
Air quality permit forms are generally developed according to process rather than sector, although some processes (such as gasoline dispensing) are strongly associated with particular sectors.
The ADEM offers a number of sector-specific pollution prevention fact sheets, for sectors including auto refinishing, offset, screen, and general printing, and service stations and auto repair shops, along with some process specific fact sheets.
Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation
Special permit forms are available for a few categories associated with specific sectors, including animal health, food processing, and oil. An Interactive Permit Questionnaire is provided which provides more extensive permit information for sectors including petroleum, hotel and motel, food processing, and fish processing.
The Pollution Prevention information page includes links to some sector-specific information pages concerning cruise ship waste management in Alaskan waters, seafood processing, and animal industries (in conjunction with the State Veterinarian), along with other pages dealing with items such as food safety and pesticides which are developed more from the consumer than the industry point of view.
Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
The Pollution Prevention Unit in the Capacity Development Section offers publications and fact sheets for several sectors, including automotive maintenance repair shops, the fiber reinforced plastics industry, and lithographic printers, as well as links to external resources for other sectors.
Special air quality permit forms have been developed on a sector-specific basis for sectors including asphalt plants, concrete batch plants, crematories, and dry cleaners. Water quality permits do not appear to have been developed on a sector-specific basis in Arizona, although the "What's New?" section of the permits information page (as of 8/29/00) lists special information for concentrated animal feeding operations.
The ADEQ provides a Permits Handbook containing an extensive chart listing possible environmental permit requirements for nearly 60 specific sectors (pp. xi ff.)
The Compliance Assistance Program provides a list of specific sectors for which services are offered, although there are no on-line resources or links for specific sectors associated with the list.
Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality
The organizational structure of the ADEQ is a mixture of traditional media-based divisions and service-oriented divisions, including some sector-specific groups. Examples include a Construction Assistance Division and a Mining Division. The Customer Service Division offers business assistance, including permit assistance and compliance assistance, but sector-specific resources are not evident.
With regard to permitting, the Air Division provides special permit forms for sectors including oil and gas, hot mix asphalt facilities, and cotton gins. The Water Division provides special permits for concentrated animal feeding operations. The Solid Waste Management Division provides special permit application packages for waste tire facilities, and a guidance package for foundry sand reuse.
California Environmental Protection Agency
California maintains a statewide network of permit assistance centers. The program does not appear to have a sector orientation. In another aspect of permitting, the state has instituted an innovative Permit Consolidation Pilot Program to allow "single facility compliance plan[s] for businesses subject to multi-media environmental requirements". The program is facility oriented, with a geography oriented overlay. At this relatively early stage of its development, little evidence of a sector approach is apparent.
The state has also recently established an on-line resource for general business permitting, CalGOLD. The system permits a search for a comprehensive list of all permits required for broad categories of businesses. Users are given a set of nested categories, the first being business sector (followed by geographical information of increasing specificity). The system returns an impressively detailed (if daunting) list of necessary permits for business of a given type in a given location, with geographically specific contact information. It is an exemplary use of the sector classification to organize compliance assistance material.
California's Environmental Management System Project appears to be largely facility-oriented. Selection criteria for pilot projects under the program are almost devoid of sector content, beyond a provision to represent diversity in terms of "industry type or sector", along with many other criteria. Given the inherently facility-centered nature of any individual EMS, this is not surprising. A sector-based approach would be expected to become more apparent at a later stage of development, when the time comes for successful pilot projects to be replicated. A sector approach, perhaps with the creation of EMS templates, might then prove to be particularly useful.
California has produced a wide variety of excellent plain language compliance assistance and pollution prevention information resources for numerous sectors. Despite a diligent search, reference to any information about this material on the Cal/EPA website remains elusive.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
The Air Pollution Control Division includes a Regulatory Compliance and Support Unit which provides a variety of sector-specific resources. The New Source Performance Standards Program provides guidance documents and checklists for sectors including
In addition, the Small Business Assistance Program offers sector-specific compliance assistance guidance documents for sectors including:
as well as various equipment and process-specific categories.
*The resources provided for these sectors include primarily the Inspector's On-Site Check List and related sector-specific information material for site inspectors. It would be very useful to have this type of sector-specific procedural information for other states, but such documents do not typically appear to be posted. Perhaps Colorado's example should be encouraged with other states, since it indicates the prevalence of the collaborative over the "gotcha" mentality.
A number of sector-specific resources are provided in conjunction with Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs). Special websites are provided for sectors affected by Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standards, including chromium metal finishing, printing and publishing, and offsite waste and recovery operations. Inspectors' on-site checklists and sector-specific information is also provided for several specific processes and sectors, as noted above.
A statewide pollution prevention resources site is available (some portions are still under construction, as of 8/28/00) . The site does not appear, at least at this point, to have a strongly sector-based orientation. However, a number of sector-specific resources are listed, including an index of pollution prevention case studies arranged by sector, and a listing of trade organization branches in Colorado providing pollution prevention services for their members.
A special home page is provided for commercial swine feeding operations.
Special air quality permit application forms have been developed for a few sectors, including gas stations, print shops, and grain handling operations, as well as several process-specific categories.
In contrast to air quality permitting and assistance, sector-specific tools do not appear to have been developed to any great extent for water quality issues in Colorado.
Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection
Much of the permitting for all media is done on a sector basis in Connecticut, through a system of general permits. In contrast to an individual permit, issued to an individual applicant, general permits are issued to cover specific activities. (Although this may seem more process-specific than sector-specific, the activities covered by general permits seem to be generally sector oriented.)
The Division of Environmental Assistance and Outreach offers "Sector Fact Sheets provid[ing] technical information on implementing pollution prevention for many sectors including: Auto Repair, Metal Finishers, Dry Cleaners, Consumers, Vo-Tech Auto Repair Facilities, Printers, and Lithographers" through its Pollution Prevention Office, although they do not appear to be accessible on-line.
The Department provides a summary of compliance assistance and pollution prevention activities arranged by sector. The sectors covered include automotive services (including body shops and junk yard), analytical laboratories, including academic laboratories, metal finishers, printers/publishers, government/institutions, furniture refinishing, utility boilers, agriculture, machine shops, pesticide application, and construction/excavation. (The list is dated 1998, and does not include links.)
The Small Business Assistance Program has conducted workshops on air toxics for auto body shops, wood furniture manufacturers, and gas stations.
Delaware Department of Natural Resources & Environmental Control
The Delaware Pollution Prevention Program offers Pollution Prevention Guides for:
as well as more general purpose guides for:
Business permitting assistance is offered, but not on a sector basis.
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
The department is organized by media, but a few sector specific resources can be found in the media-based divisions. The Division of Waste Management offers a Drycleaning Solvent Cleanup Program page, and has sponsored a Hotel/Motel Waste Reduction Project.
The Small Business Assistance Program features sector specific resources including a compliance calendar for dry cleaners and a pollution prevention guide for printers on its home page. The Pollution Prevention program offers fact sheets, which appear to be primarily material-based (solvent substitution).
Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Environmental Protection Division
A special reporting form for surface mining is provided. Otherwise, few sector-specific resources are apparent, either from the regulatory pages, from the Pollution Prevention Assistance Division, or from the Small Business Assistance page.
Hawaii Department of Health -- Environmental Health Administration
Environmental regulation in Hawaii is carried out through programs within the state Department of Health. The Environmental Management Division carries out the regulatory functions through branches organized by media, for air, water, and solid waste. No sector-specific resources are evident, aside from a special agricultural burning permit and special permits (more health-based than environmental) for hospital and medical facilities.
Idaho Department of Environmental Quality
Department programs are organized by media.
Air quality permit information and air permit forms are organized on a process-specific basis, with most manufacturing operations included in a "Process and Manufacturing Operations" section.
The Water Quality page lists a number of items of general interest, typically geography or material specific. Water permitting procedures or assistance is not apparent on the website.
The Small Business Assistance Program offers a contact name and a link to the national SBAP page, with no state- specific resources targeted toward any individual sectors.
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
The agency is organized along media lines. Permitting also appears to be set up according to media, with no special provisions for individual sectors.
Pollution prevention programs include references to the Great Printers Project and the Common Sense Initiative ( now superseded by the Strategic Goals Project) for the metal finishing sector. The "What's New" page for pollution prevention also lists a "Star" program for dry cleaners. An information page (including a detailed fact sheet) for dry cleaners has been posted by the Office of Small Business.
Listings under "Small Business Assistance Publications and Fact Sheets" include compliance guides for construction and demolition debris, electroplating shops, and automotive repair and auto body shops. The Links page in the small business assistance section contains some sector-specific references, including the EPA Sector Notebooks, four of the Compliance Assistance Centers, and a link to an EPA page with dry cleaning information (not functioning when checked on 8/25/00).
Indiana Department of Environmental Management
The Compliance and Technical Assistance Program is organized by sector. Special information pages are provided for:
With this well developed sector resource base, it is interesting that a Technical Assistance Customer Service Survey provided by the IDEM Office of Pollution Prevention and Technical Assistance requests information on such issues as business size and age, job responsibilities of respondent, type of assistance needed, and whether or not the business has an EMS in place, but there is apparently nowhere on the form to indicate business sector or type of operation.
The Environmental Permit Guide is organized according to media. Separate forms or guidance for sectors is not apparent. However, a special page with agricultural information is provided, accessible from the home page.
The organizational structure of the department follows media lines.
Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Environmental Protection Division
Air quality technical information is provided for a few sectors, including dry cleaning, and hospital incinerators. The Water Quality Bureau provides a technical and regulatory information page for confined animal feeding operations. Otherwise, there does not appear to be a particular emphasis on sector specific resources.
The division is organized along media-specific lines.
Kansas Department of Health & Environment
The Air Permit Section assigns permit engineers by sector, and provides a page with contact information. Sector-specific air permit forms are available for several sectors, including coal preparation and processes, grain elevators, insulation manufacturing, foundry, livestock and meat processing, chemical manufacturing petroleum refinery, concrete/cement production, and rock and aggregate crushers. (Other listed forms are equipment or process-specific.)
Organizationally, there is a Surface Mining Section in the Bureau of Environmental Remediation. This Bureau also provides a special home page devoted to the Drycleaning Environmental Response Act. Otherwise, the department is organized along media lines.
Kentucky Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet
The structure of the primary environmental regulatory department, the Department for Environmental Protection, is organized along media lines. However, a sector specific department, the Department for Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, is organized as a free-standing unit, alongside but independent of the DEP.
Within the DEP, the Division of Water provides a link to emergency regulations for concentrated animal feeding operations. In the Environmental Permitting Handbook, oil and gas facilities have separate provision for water permits, otherwise, water and air permitting does not appear to be organized on a sector basis in Kentucky.
The Small Business Assistance Program lists sectors whose activities might require air quality permits, but sector- specific information resources or links were not evident on the website.
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
The Small Business Assistance Program provides separate plain language summaries of air quality regulations for over forty individual sectors. Each page lists a chemical specialist for that sector, plus a summary of regulations, reporting and recordkeeping requirements, and pollution prevention suggestions. Contact information for the chemical specialist is given on a separate page, with picture and with additional regional contacts, where available. (The information appears to go back to 1996, but may still be valid. In any case, the format and approach seem to be among the more user-friendly compliance assistance pages available.)
The sectors covered by these plain language summaries are:
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Air quality permit information does not appear to have a sector-based organization, although a separate page for dry cleaners is provided.
Water quality permitting (NPDES) involves special forms for:
In contrast to most other states, the Louisiana DEQ is organized along functional (assistance, permitting, compliance, etc.) rather than media specific lines. Aside from a Petrochemical office in the Permits section of Environmental Services, these do not appear to be any organizational divisions devoted to specific sectors.
Maine Department of Environmental Protection
Some innovative technical and compliance assistance programs have been developed in Maine. There is a small business compliance incentive policy that explicitly separates assistance from enforcement. The agency appears to be open to developing collaborative relationships with business and industry, although it does not seem to be inclined toward a sector approach.
One sector-based program is the Environmental Leader certification program for gas stations. But in general the technical assistance and beyond compliance activities do not appear to be strongly sector-focused. A compilation of Pollution Prevention Case Studies is primarily facility-based (as case studies generally have to be), although the sector of each facility is indicated.
The overall organization of the agency is media-based.
Maryland Department of the Environment
In Maryland, the Small Business Assistance Program and the Pollution Prevention Program are contained within an umbrella office, the Environmental Permits Service Center (EPSC), whose core mission is permit assistance. SBAP provides information packets (apparently hard copy only) for sectors including drycleaners, gas stations and mechanic shops, chrome platers, and auto body shops, as well as process specific packets for degreasing and parts cleaning. The Pollution Prevention Program offers on-site visits and information, including a detailed page of websites, many of which have sector relevance, although the information is not organized along sector lines.
As to the permitting process itself, several available water permit forms are sector-specific. Examples in coal and other mining, concentrated animal feeding operations, seafood processing, and marinas. Air permits do not appear to be broken down into sector categories.
Apart from the Permits Center, the agency is organized along typical media-based lines.
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
The Department is organized along traditional media lines, with little evidence of a sector orientation in the organizational structure.
The Environmental Results Program, although apparently facility-based in its general approach, shares many of the goals of sector-based programs, such as its intention to "tap the unparalleled creative, technological imagination of Massachusetts companies to find the most cost-effective compliance strategies, offering them the freedom and incentive to achieve current standards – and then move beyond them". Among the publications created by the program are Certification Materials and Forms specifically for dry cleaners, photoprocessors, and printers.
A Matrix of Primary Massachusetts Environmental Statutes and Regulations lists a few sectors, including food and agriculture, marine fisheries, and tree harvesting, but does not otherwise break out sectors as separate regulated categories.
Compliance assistance for consumers is more prominent on the website than compliance assistance for businesses.
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ)
A number of sector-specific pollution prevention programs are accessible from the Environmental Assistance Division (EAD), general directory. Sectors include agriculture, defense facilities, metal finishing, and others listed below.
Additional examples of sector-based "beyond compliance" and special assistance programs in Michigan include:
Metal Finishing Pollution Prevention Initiative
Michigan Great Printers Project
Michigan Automotive Project (MAP)
Partnership with Local Health and Environmental Departments
Food Industry Pollution Prevention and Waste Reduction Web Site
The Michigan Pulp and Paper Pollution Prevention Program
In contrast to pollution prevention activities, the Compliance Assistance Unit does not appear to have a strong sector focus.
Special air quality permit forms are available for a few sectors, but most special forms are more process-specific or equipment-specific than sector-specific.
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
The Small Business Assistance Program (SBAP) in Minnesota is conducting Sector Initiatives in several sectors, including wood finishers, dry cleaners, chromium electroplaters and anodizers, and auto body and repair shops.
An Industry Information page provides links to the above sector information, plus an additional page devoted to Transportation Services.
The major voluntary "beyond compliance" programs in Minnesota appear to be facility-based. Examples include an Environmental Performance Partnership Agreement with EPA and ECOS, and Minnesota's participation in Project XL.
Minnesota participates in the Great Printers Project.
A summary report, Minnesota Environment 2000, includes a section on regional environmental quality, in which the state is divided into seven districts. In each district, the sector having the most significant environmental impact is featured. Sectors include paper, wood products, and mining.
Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality
Within the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, the Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Division, and the Environmental Permits Division are organized by sector (see Directory), with separate branches for
The Environmental Permits Division is creating separate web pages on a sector basis for various subdivisions among these sectors (see EPD index page -- as of 8/14/00, pages were under construction)
Missouri Department of Natural Resources
The Missouri Toxics Release Inventory Annual Report (1997 data) list the top three TRI sectors for reported emissions as primary metal products, chemical and allied products, and transportation equipment.
Few environmental programs in Missouri appear to be organized on a sector basis.
Montana Department of Environmental Quality
Mining appears to be the major sector of environmental concern in Montana. Permitting is organized on a sector basis, with separate responsibility for coal, uranium, and open cut mining.
There does not appear to be significant "beyond compliance" program activity in Montana.
Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality
The list of publications available from the Nebraska DEQ includes several fact sheets and guidance documents items relevant to the livestock sector, and special construction permit application forms for asphalt plants, grain handling operations, and surface coating operations.
Additional sector-specific resources may be found within various media programs. Examples include training sessions and an approved applicator list for "chemigation" (application of fertilizers and pesticides), relevant to the agriculture sector, on an information page from the Groundwater Section.
Otherwise, no specific sector-based programs are apparent at the website.
Nevada Division of Environmental Protection
In addition to the media offices, the Mining and Federal Facilities sectors are organized as separate Bureaus within the Division.
The Nevada Small Business Assistance Program (SBAP) offers technical assistance, working closely with the Nevada Small Business Development Center (NSBDC). Assistance does not appear to be typically organized along sector-specific lines, although Small Community and Local Government assistance is singled out. The Business Environmental Program offers a TRI reporting guide for mining.
New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services
None of the New Hampshire programs, including the Pollution Prevention program, appear to be organized along sector-specific lines.
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection
New Jersey is active in the Metal Finishing Strategic Goals Program. However, for the most part, technical assistance, permitting, and other functions are not generally organized along sector lines. New Jersey participates in a National Environmental Performance Partnership System, but this program is facility-based.
New Mexico Environment Department, Environmental Protection Division
There is a major "beyond compliance" program in New Mexico, the Green Zia program. It appears to be organized along facility-specific, rather than sector-specific lines.
New York Department of Environmental Conservation
New York offers several publications for specific sectors, including lithographic printers, vehicle maintenance shops, electronics and computers, health care facilities, agriculture, and others. (Links are to compliance and pollution prevention guides or self-assessment guides -- see publications page for additional links.) However, the Small Business pollution prevention assistance page is organized along media-specific, rather than sector-specific lines.
The media-specific orientation characterizes the website in general. For example, the Division of Water's small business publications page lists only one sector-specific publication (for metal finishing), among many non-sector titles.
North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources
A detailed collection of sector-specific resources is available from the Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance. Information can be accessed by industry sector. Currently active information pages include:
Pages for several other sectors are in process.
A number of sector-specific resources are available from the DENR Customer Service Center. The OneStop Permit feature lists special application information for
Although several industry sectors are strongly represented in North Carolina's economy, the regulatory approach does not seem to be organized along sector lines. A few documents (pertaining to the swine production and timber products (chip mill) sectors (the latter a university study) are referenced on the website, there is little sector-based orientation evident in either the department structure or the descriptions of existing programs. A hog farm initiative is mentioned in a summary of water quality improvement accomplishments, but few other sectors appear to have been focal points for specific programs.
North Dakota Department of Health, Environmental Health Section
Few examples of sector-based approaches are apparent on the website. A special application form for livestock waste is provided on the Division of Water Quality page. The organization of the regulatory agency follows typical media-specific lines. Compliance assistance links are not evident.
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency
The Office of Pollution Prevention provides a list of sector-specific resources for several sectors, including
The Small Business Assistance Office offers resources for a variety of specific sectors, including
Each of these lists, even when they refer to the same sectors, were apparently compiled independently.
The website provides a searchable database of technical assistance providers. Interestingly, although the database is searchable by several categories, including a general keyword search, only a few sectors (food, glass, polymers) are represented among the keywords. (It may be that the TAPs do not in general provide services on a sector-specific basis.)
Ohio established a Pollution Prevention Partnership program in 1997 with the federal facilities sector. The agency has also established a special Office of Federal Facilities Oversight. Otherwise, most regulatory functions appear to be handled on a media-specific basis, with no specific sector orientation apparent.
Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality
The agency provides TRI reporting assistance on a sector-specific basis by supplying example forms for typical plastics products, dairy, garden supply, machine shop, and garden and seed facilities.
The Air Quality Division provides sector-specific fact sheets for brick manufacturers, dry cleaners, metals industry, oil and gas facilities, and commercial printing facilities.
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
The Air Quality Program offers assistance to a list of specific business types, including
However, there do not appear to be separate lists of resources specifically directed to these sectors.
The Oregon DEQ provides a general Permits Handbook covering all media. Specific information pertaining to various sectors is interspersed throughout the document. For example, the chapter on Water Quality lists those sectors required to obtain storm water discharge permits. The general organization of the document is by media. (Sector-specific information would apparently be accessible only by scanning through the text.)
The Water Quality Division offers what appears at first glance to be sector-specific information on placer mining. However, placer mining appears to be considered as much a recreational activity as an industry.
An information page listing requirements and recommended practices is provided for dry cleaners.
The Oregon DEQ also cosponsors a pollution prevention and recognition program for the automotive services sector.
Oregon has a Performance Partnership Agreement with EPA. Apart from a few tangential references (such as mention of a NESHAP relating to dry cleaners as an issue), the approach seems to be more facility-based, with goals established on a geography-based approach (and in the case of air quality, a secondary materials-based approach).
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
Pennsylvania offers extensive opportunities for assistance to small businesses. Relatively few programs appear to be organized primarily on a sector basis. Some sector-based assistance materials are available, such as an overview of regulations for auto refinishers. More typical is the Small Business Handbook, which contains general information of state programs available to small businesses, as well as general pollution prevention information, but is not sector-specific in concept or in detail. Their Environmental Self Evaluation Guide, a regulatory compliance self-assessment tool, is organized by media, and simply lists a number of sectors which are ordinarily covered by environmental regulations, without attempting to link specific regulatory concerns with specific sectors.
Sector-specific compliance guides are available from the Envirohelp program, for such sectors as auto body refinishing (different from the overview of regulations referred to in the previous paragraph), baking industry, and wood refinishing. (Other guides in this series are more process-specific.)The Office of Pollution Prevention and Compliance Assistance lists several sector-specific programs, including the Metal Finishing Strategic Goals Program in Pennsylvania, a reference page for hotels and motels, and a presentation on powder metals.
A few sectors are represented in the agency's divisional structure, most notably mining and oil and gas. But in general, the sector approach does not appear to be reflected to any great extent in the organizational structure at the state level in Pennsylvania.
Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management
The Rhode Island Small Business Assistance Program lists examples of sectors covered under regulations, but does not appear to offer assistance specifically targeted on a sector level.
The Office of Law Enforcement specifically targets the fish and shellfish industries ( a relatively rare example of an enforcement program applied on a sector-specific basis).
The Office of Technical and Customer Assistance provides a certification program for the auto body repair sector.
In terms of agency organization, the only apparent example of a sector-based division is the Division of Agriculture, whose web page offers a number of technical and regulatory guides for the agriculture sector.
South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control
The South Carolina Small Business Assistance Program provides a list of types of small businesses that may need permits, but does not appear to target assistance on a sector basis.
Some permit forms are provided for specific sectors, such as for agriculture and mining. The Environmental Permitting Handbook provides an extensive chart (pp. 5 - 7) listing about 60 sectors with indications of which environmental permits are likely to be required for each sector. But for the most part, the permitting process itself appears to be organized along the usual media-specific lines. Exceptions include special programs for oil and gas exploration (solid and hazardous waste permits), and shellfish processing and animal feeding facilities (water discharge permits).
South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources
South Dakota has developed source specific data sheets for Air Quality Permit applications for several sectors, including asphalt plants and other non-metallic mineral processing plants. (Other data sheets appear to be more process than sector-specific.) Grain elevators and concrete batch plants are also given special notice of intent forms.
The Small Business Assistance Program appears to link to a web site with industry sector information, but closer inspection reveals that it is simply a link to a general EPA sponsored web site, with no specific South Dakota content.
Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation
Some permitting is done on a sector-specific basis: special water permits are issued for livestock farms, waste permits (including an annual registration requirement) for dry cleaners, and a natural resource permit for oil and gas wells and surface mining.
No sector-specific resources were immediately apparent under the Assistance category. The major "beyond compliance" program, the Tennessee Pollution Prevention Partnership, appears to be organized on a facility-specific basis.
A sector-specific resource of sorts may be found in the Water section -- it is a water quality complaint form specifically for logging activities.
Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission
Although it takes some searching to find it from the home page, there is a wealth of industry specific technical information available from the Small Business Assistance page (scroll down to the Industry-Specific Compliance Information bullet). Compliance checklists have been prepared for sectors including automotive repair, auto body shops, dry cleaning, foundry, metal finishing, printing, surface coating, and wood products manufacturing. Additional compliance materials include such items as a "Top Ten Questions" document for auto body shops, an Environmental Guide for Texas Dry Cleaners, and similar guides for thermoset resin facilities and for the wood products industry. A bullet labeled "Workshops" offers "Compliance and pollution prevention workshops for specific small business sectors offered at various locations around the state", although the event schedule does not specify which sectors the workshops are directed toward.
A page on pollution prevention technical assistance includes other sector-specific resources, including a database of case studies from the University of Texas at El Paso which can be searched by sector, and a Pollution Prevention Partnership program with federal facilities in Texas.
Permitting and other regulatory functions appear to be organized primarily along media-specific lines in Texas.
Utah Department of Environmental Quality
The website provides a broad range of links to various sector-specific resources, but virtually all of the targets are federal or TAP sites. Little if any sector-specific material developed with a specifically Utah-centered perspective is in evidence. The Compliance Assistance page links almost exclusively to federal sites, the exception being a contact list for the state Small Business Advisory Committee.
Permitting is organized along standard media lines.
The organization chart for the agency is also strictly media-based, with no apparent divisions or branches devoted to specific sectors (aside from a Division of Radiation Control, which appears to be concerned with uranium mining).
Vermont Agency of Natural Resources
The Environmental Assistance Division within the Department of Environmental Conservation offers compliance guides for printers, wood finishers, and vehicle service and repair. In addition, there are several waste management publications, generally directed toward specific materials, such as oil, paints, and refrigerants. An information page refers to several sector-specific resources, including a selection of national compliance assistance centers.
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
The Office of Pollution Prevention provides industry specific fact sheets for several sectors, including marinas and boatyards, printing, metal finishing, photographic processing, printed circuit board manufacturing, and fabricated metal products.
The Small Business Assistance Program has compiled a very extensive list of resources available on-line for 37 different industry sectors.
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Petroleum Refining & Distribution Refrigerator/ AC Service & Repair Shops |
The same office provides
A TRI reporting resource page is provided, but no sector-specific information appears to have been developed.
Permitting is organized along media-specific lines. No special sector-based forms or procedures are evident. The Business and Industry Guide to Environmental Permits in Virginia (WordPerfect version -- the PDF version did not appear to be functioning) makes reference to a few sector-specific provisions. For example, on p. 19 it lists 28 specific industries required to file a Prevention of Significant Deterioration for new air pollution sources emitting in excess of 100 tons per year of a regulated pollutant, but this appears to be a carry-over from the federal regulations, rather than a sector-specific provision pertaining to Virginia.
Washington Department of Ecology
The state provides sector-specific permit assistance for printed wiring board manufacturers, construction contractors, and mineral prospectors (the latter from the Department of Fish and Wildlife).
The Air Quality Business Assistance Program lists several sectors which may be affected by federal, state, or local air quality requirements. Resources targeted toward individual sectors have been prepared by the Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center (the PPRC website also has an extensive sector-based list of resources). Some of the sectors covered by the air regulations fact sheets include wood furniture manufacturing, shipbuilding and repair, chromium electroplating, aerospace manufacturing and repair, and rotogravure and wide-web flexographic printing, as well as pollution prevention information on paints and coatings.
The agency also provides a page of Small Business Assistance Links, including an extensive sector-specific page of industry web sites. The page includes links to several Washington regional authority websites providing sector-specific contacts, programs, and information. Examples include
[Note added 9/11/00: All of the URLs to the Washington Department of Ecology website changed in early September, 2000. Most of the documents referred to above were found by searching the new site, and the links were updated, but links in the following paragraph could not be located.] Washington has a Performance Partnership Agreement with EPA. In contrast to the analogous agreement with other states, the detailed text of the Washington agreement contains significant sector-based elements. Examples include
Agreements with other states in this program tend to be almost exclusively facility-based.
In general, Washington appears to be one of the leading states in terms of the depth and variety of sector-based pollution prevention and compliance assistance resources and programs available.
West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection
Program offices in West Virginia reflect a sector orientation, with a Mines and Minerals Group (recently established), an Office of Oil and Gas and an Office of Explosives and Blasting (working primarily with the coal sector) represented.
A Pollution Prevention Program offers general information, but apparently not on a sector-specific basis.
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
The Wisconsin DNR's compliance assistance page is explicitly structured according to a sector approach. Sector specialists have been designated to work with specific sectors (including chemical manufacturing, dry cleaning, food processing, wood products, metal finishing, and others -- the site lists their names and specialties, together with their contact information). Assistance is provided according to a set of operating principles spelling out the relationship between the assistance program and traditional regulatory functions. Special information pages are provided for sixteen "sectors", fourteen of which would be sectors according to the definition used in this document:
.(The other two
would be classified as material-based, rather than sector-based classifications in this study.)
A sector page page of links to additional on-line resources is also provided.
The state has developed an Environmental Performance Partnership Agreement (see also overview) with EPA. The approach appears to be primarily media-based and geography-based, with a few references to specific sectors of concern in conjunction with specific program elements.
In contrast to the strong sector orientation of the compliance assistance function, the regulatory functions generally follow along media lines. The agency organizational chart shows that divisions are organized generally by media, although there is a Division of Forestry ("Division" according to the chart, "Bureau" according to the web page).. With the exception of a special front end for the mining sector, permitting appears to be organized primarily on a media basis.
Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality
The organization of the agency follows traditional media classification. The Water and Wastewater Program includes special information pages for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), and a page (under construction as of 8/21/00) for Oilfield Waste Disposal Options. Otherwise few sector-based regulatory programs are evident.
The Office of Outreach and Environmental Assistance provides links to some sector-based on-line resources, including several of the OECA Compliance Assistance Centers.
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