After effectively being discontinued for almost a decade, the EPA declared May 15th the agency’s “renewed emphasis on encouraging regulated entities to voluntarily discover, promptly disclose, expeditiously correct, and take steps to prevent recurrence of environmental violations.” This renewed emphasis is consistent with the current EPA’s focus on improving compliance through mechanisms, including voluntary self-correction, that achieve environmental goals more quickly and in a less costly, adversarial and time-consuming manner than traditional enforcement means.

Some of the policy’s key incentives and areas of flexibility include: (1) the ability of new owners to enter into audit agreements that incorporate disclosure reporting that is appropriate to their unique situation; (2) the waiver of economic benefit penalties that otherwise might apply to delayed expenditures; and (3) more generous treatment of violations discovered through already legally mandated monitoring, sampling or reporting that would not normally be considered “voluntarily discovered” (such as testing pursuant to a Title V permit).

More info on the Audit Policy and the New Owner Policy can be found at: https://www.epa.gov/compliance/epas-audit-policy.