Department of Environmental Quality - Compliance Management

The Department of Environmental Quality (Department) monitors and enforces regulated facilities’ compliance with environmental laws and regulations to control or prevent the release of contaminants into the environment that may have negative effects on the public’s health. The Department monitors compliance by inspecting regulated facilities, such as power plants, wastewater treatment plants, dry cleaners, construction equipment, and other portable pollution sources. The Department’s annual inspection commitments with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have typically resulted in the Department’s inspecting facilities of the same type or category with the same frequency, regardless of risk. Since federal guidance and policy allow states some flexibility to alter inspection frequencies, the Department should request that the EPA collaborate with it to develop a risk-based inspections approach. In addition, the Department should take steps to strengthen its enforcement actions, including notifying facilities in a timely manner about their violations and the actions they must take to resolve them, improving the assistance it provides to noncompliant facilities, and developing and adhering to more effective policies for escalating enforcement actions against facilities that fail to return to compliance within department deadlines.