Implementing an Environmental Management System (EMS) at your company can be extremely beneficial by providing a general framework for organizing the tasks for effective environmental management. Additionally, implementing an EMS can have the following benefits:
- Integrates existing environmental programs
- Creates an orderly process for understanding and meeting regulatory requirements
- Integrates environmental issues into mainstream business activities
- Reduces risks associated with environmental issues
- Builds an engine of continuous environmental performance
- Improves environmental performance
- Enhances image with public, regulators, lenders and investors
- Increases efficiency/reducing costs
To learn more about the benefits of an EMS,
click here to read an article written by one of the environmental compliance technicians at August Mack Environmental.
The following are some of the reasons why a company might implement an environmental management system (EMS):
- Lessen the environmental burden for your company
- Foresee and/or prevent potential disasters
- Build trust with regulators
- Grow community support
- Mechanism for site-specific evaluation and learning tool
- Creates a team aspect among employees
Managing safety for a single facility can be a challenging and daunting task. To complicate things, if your company has multiple facilities you could be facing additional, less obvious risks. The good news: knowing what to watch for and having a good system in place allows you to carry "lessons learned" from one facility to another. If your company operates multiple facilities this webinar will discuss how to minimize your costs and risks associated with multiple facilities.
Register here for the
Environmental Compliance Assistance recorded webinar on Compound the Solution, Not the Problem - Safety Management at Multi-Facility Companies.
Knowing the difficulties associated with compliance, August Mack has developed an environmental, health and safety compliance assurance program (eCAP®) that can revolutionize the way facilities manage environmental regulation compliance. eCAP® focuses on the facility’s regulatory compliance, while reducing facility expenses on an annual basis and allowing internal personnel to focus on production. August Mack’s proven program manages corporate risk by outsourcing a plant’s regulatory compliance for a fixed monthly fee.
Our experience shows that clients spend a significant amount of time and money participating in training seminars, policy and regulatory committee meetings to educate themselves and track the ever-changing regulatory requirements. After all the research and education, many manufacturers are still uncertain regarding the applicability of regulations for their specific operations. In the end, compliance can only be confirmed via regulatory agency inspections, which often result in “Notices of Violation”, penalties and fines. eCAP® is designed to eliminate all of these uncertainties and allows you to focus on your bottom line.
eCAP® provides a team of experts in all areas of EPA environmental compliance to implement, review and maintain an environmental management system that ensures compliance with current and future regulations. This allows the facility personnel to focus efforts on production requirements and August Mack experts to focus on the facility’s EH&S compliance issues.
eCAP® is modularly designed to help facilities achieve and maintain compliance with the following:
- Clean Air Act (CAA)
- Clean Water Act (CWA)
- Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
- Resource Conversation and Recovery Act (RCRA)
An Environmental Management System (EMS) is the business processes an organization uses to understand and manage their effect on the environment. An EMS follows the Plan - Do - Check - Act process (PDCA). The graphic below illustrates this process.
Since its inception in 1999, eCAP® has been implemented for more than 100 clients throughout North America. When trying to determine the top benefits of eCAP, we asked our clients what they thought and four top benefits were mentioned: file organization, fixed cost structure, technical expertise and preservation of institutional knowledge.
Employees leave companies. Companies hire new employees. When an employee leaves a company that knowledge base, what is between their ears, leaves with them. To lessen the transition and the loss of knowledge that invariably happens during employee turnover is another key element of the eCAP
® system. Documenting methodology, data collection points and emission factors is a function of eCAP
®. The web page is a tool that allows the seamless flow of information from August Mack's environmental compliance consultants to our clients management staff. Process diagrams, report filings, worksheets, etc. are maintained on the Web site and provide a step by step historical record of facility inspections reporting functions and day-to-day corporate environmental compliance activities. This regimented effort reduces and eliminates that loss of knowledge that occurs when employees leave. It's a hallmark of the program.
To learn more about how the loss of institutional knowledge can impact your facility,
click here to read an article written by one of the environmental compliance technicians at August Mack Environmental.
Since its inception in 1999, eCAP® has been implemented for more than 100 clients throughout North America. When trying to determine the top benefits of eCAP®, we asked our clients what they thought and four top benefits were mentioned: file organization, fixed cost structure, technical expertise and preservation of institutional knowledge.
The benefit of file organization is a major component of eCAP®. In our opinion, there cannot be an effective environmental management system (EMS) in place without proper organization, timelines, responsibility matrices, corrective action or accountability. With eCAP®, one of the first tasks is to conduct a thorough file review. This environmental file review identifies which files (reports) are present and more importantly identifies which reports are not present. The eCAP® program entails creating a web page that contains all, not some, not a few, but all of the required permits, monitoring logs, training records, report submittals, permit modifications and deviation reports required to demonstrate compliance. This allows our clients to have the necessary documentation at their finger tips.
To learn more about the benefits of proactive file management,
click here to read an article written by one of the environmental compliance specialists at August Mack Environmental.
During the last ten years, August Mack's eCAP® program (Compliance Assurance Program) has become a fully functional and sustainable environmental management system (EMS) that has received approval as a Supplemental Environmental Program (SEP). According to our eCAP® clients, the top four benefits of eCAP® are:
- File Organization
- Fixed Cost Structure
- Technical Expertise
- Preservation of Institutional Knowledge
August Mack Environmental, Inc., a full-service environmental, health and safety (EH&S) consulting firm, is pleased to the promotion of Bennett Thayer to Office Manager for the Dublin, Ohio office. Since joining August Mack in 2004, Thayer has served as a field scientist, staff scientist and project manager.
With more than eight years of experience, Thayer specializes in local, state and federal environmental compliance; environmental, health and safety (EH&S) servicing and reporting; environmental management program development and implementation; biological assessment and environmental investigations; groundwater monitoring; subsurface investigations; underground storage tank (UST) closure; environmental site assessments; wetland determinations and delineations; remedial system operations and maintenance; work plan design and implementation; asbestos surveys; Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) preparation and implementation; and Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasures (SPCC) Plan preparation and implementation. In his new role as an office manager, Thayer will be responsible for managing the office’s daily operations, providing technical oversight for projects and managing the office’s growing staff. According to Bryan Petriko, vice president and principal environmental engineer for August Mack, “During the past six years at August Mack, Ben has shown exemplary strength in leadership, technical knowledge, resource management and client management. These qualities made him an excellent choice for the Office Manager position of our Ohio office. I am confident that our Ohio office will continue to flourish under his leadership.”
Thayer received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Science from Otterbein College.
August Mack Environmental, Inc. is a full-service environmental, health and safety (EH&S) consulting firm specializing in regulatory compliance; environmental due diligence and risk management; site investigation/remediation/closure; and sustainability services to the industrial, legal, financial, health care and government sectors throughout North America. August Mack has offices in Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania. For more information on the company’s products and services, call 317.916.8000 or visit www.augustmack.com.
After a client called me last week regarding the rules of heating oil tanks in Indiana I did a quick search of the web for more information to send him for a good point of reference. So I thought everyone might benefit from this reference; however, regulations on heaitng oil tanks vary from state to state, so check with your state environmental regulatory agency for more information on your state!
Here's what the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) says about heating oil tanks:
Heating oil tanks that are for consumptive use on the premises are not regulated by the UST Section. If, however, they leak, it should be reported and must be cleaned up. If a release is detected at a residential heating oil tank, please contact the IDEM Spill Line at (317) 233-7745 or toll-free at (888) 233-7745.
Home heating oil tanks are fairly common. Many were installed in the 1940s and later abandoned. Typically, they are 100-500 gallons in size. Unfortunately, many of these systems leaked or may still leak due to corrosion (rust). Most were abandoned without proper closure. There are no grant or loan programs available to the homeowner to investigate or cleanup leaks from these USTs. If you own and are seeking to buy or sell a home with a heating oil UST that is no longer in use, you should consider taking steps to reduce your current and future human health risk and financial liability. There are UST closure procedures for regulated USTs, which should be followed. If possible, the UST should be removed along with the associate piping. If the UST is inaccessible, it can be closed in place. You can use the advice given for the FAQ titled "How Should I select a Consultant". It is not necessary for them to have experience with the IDEM ELTF program in this situation as it does not apply.
If you have limited resources and have no reason to suspect that the UST leaked, the minimum that should be done is to empty the tank of its contents. The oil and water should be containerized and recycled or disposed of properly. Many communities offer free "Tox-A-Way" programs as a way to properly dispose of "household hazardous waste". Next all piping should be disconnected and removed, if possible. This will ensure that the UST cannot be filled again. Finally, the empty UST should be filled with an inert material such as sand or pea gravel. For more information regarding household hazardous waste programs in your community, visit the following Recycle Indiana Household Hazardous Waste page or call toll-free at (800) 988-7901.
As discussed in an earlier post, eCAP® has a five-step process that one of our environmental compliance specialists utilize to implement eCAP® at any facility. The fourth step in this process is electronic record keeping and reporting.
During the electronic record keeping and reporting process, a customized system manages your compliance activities, reporting requirements and more. Along with real-time access to your data, you'll receive easy-to-read monthly reports to keep you current with your compliance program.
To see a demonstration of the electronic record keeping and reporting functionality of eCAP®, contact one of our environmental compliance specialists at 800.579.0770.
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