This is one of multiple chapters on Environmental Management. Chapter 2 addresses Environmental Auditing.

This is Departmental policy so it applies to all Departmental units. It is the minimum policy. Bureaus and Offices may have more rigorous policies but they must meet the requirements of this policy.

"Policy" refers to the highest level statement about the Department’s position on environmental auditing. See section 2.4 Policy.

"Responsibilities" are further outlined in section 2.6 Responsibilities. There are additional responsibilities, some explicitly and some subtlety, embedded within the chapter such as:

· Describing auditor responsibilities (Section 2.5 A)

· Addressing imminent hazards (Section 2.5 D)

All responsibilities for successfully implementing an environmental auditing program are not addressed in this chapter. User’s should carefully consider their needs and assign responsibility for designing, implementing, and closing on environmental audit program issues.

"Functions" refers to specific environmental auditing objectives stated in Section 2.4 Policy.

Environmental auditing is one means, but not necessarily the only way, to ensure compliance. Other compliance tools and techniques are allowable and/or encouraged to ensure compliance.

"Compliance" is the goal of auditing addressed by this policy.

Specific examples are listed in Section 2.3.

Some states have parallel requirements to federal requirements while others are different or are absent. Users of this chapter are cautioned to explore the applicability of state-level requirements on a case-by case basis. See section 2.3 for further explanation.

Some counties and municipalities may have additional requirements. See section 2.3 for further explanation.

Departmental lands and facilities are further defined in Section 2.2.

Operations could mean any activity that results in environmental liability attributable to the Department. For example the Department could incur environmental compliance liability from the legal or illegal activity of contractors, visitors, concessionaires, tenants, and others, whether or not it occurs on Department lands. "Operations" connotes a regular activity or practice as opposed to one that is irregular. This makes sense because in order for operations to be auditable, they must be predicted.

Means any other activity, not previously described which may result in environmental compliance liability attributable to the Department. For example, environmental compliance liability may originate within contract terms, Memorandums of Understanding, Interagency Agreements, or other commitments of historic, current, or future standing.

· "requirements" refers to the details of Section 2.5 Program

· Criteria.

Because of the emphasis on "lands and facilities" the scope of this chapter is largely based upon geography or tangible assets. However, environmental compliance liability may occur off Department lands and independently of its facilities because of "operations." For example, Department participation in polar research programs.

The terms "site or area" connote ownership, administration, or management of geography or tangible assets.

"Contiguous" means "related to" or "under the same management" not just adjacent or adjoining.

"Appurtenances and improvements" are defined here as aspects of "lands."

The following are some of the most likely types of "appurtenances and improvements" but are not necessarily all there could be. These are just examples provided for illustration.

Means:

· Office buildings, visitor centers, garages, laboratories, and others.

· Entire or portions of buildings.

· Permanent or temporary buildings.

· Occupied or unoccupied buildings.

· Complete or partial buildings.

· Modern and historic buildings.

· In-place, transported, or reconstructed buildings.

· Mobile buildings.

· Buildings as part of other appurtenances and improvements.

· Owned, leased, rented, or otherwise used, intentionally or not, for Department business.

Means identifiable natural or man-made landmarks which are classified similarly to buildings (see above). Examples include:

· Radio towers

· Dams

· Bridges

· Gazebos

Means any temporary or permanent installed appurtenance or improvement which is not a building such as:

· Airstrips

· Roadways

· Rest areas

· Picnic grounds

· Boat ramps

Means any mechanical device, tool, implement, or other man-made object such as:

· Aircraft and watercraft

· Trucks and machinery

Equipment tends to be mobile while installations are not.

Means temporary or permanent enclosed conveyance, used or not, for transporting water, oil, gas, chemicals, or mixtures.

Means drilled, dug, bored, by hand or by equipment,

· Permanent, temporary, exploratory, or abandoned

· For water or natural resources (i.e. oil)

· For withdrawal, recharge, or discharge

Means a man-made earth excavation for any purpose and of any size.

Means a natural entrapment of water or other liquid, smaller than a lake (i.e. 10 hectares), which may be temporary or permanent.

Means a man-made or natural semi-static entrapment of water or other liquid of any size which may be temporary or permanent.

Means a man-made entrapment of water typically held in place by a dam.

Means a man-made unlined excavation for conveying water, or other liquid, by gravity.

Means a man-made earthen structure accumulation location for long-term storage of waste material.

Means natural features or man-made equipment, structures, or installations that intentionally contain liquid, solid, or gaseous materials for future use.

· Consequently, an environmental compliance audit (i.e. baseline) should address these areas at a minimum.

Those listed are:

· CERCLA

· CAA

· CWA

· HMTA

· OPA

· AEA

· HAZWOPER AND HAZCOM portions of OSHA

· PPA

· RCRA

· SDWA

· TSCA

· EPCA

Those listed are:

· 12088

· 12580

· 12873

· 12856

· 12196

· 13016

Those listed are:

· 518 DM 1

· 518 DM 2

· 602 DM 2

Acknowledges that there may be other statutes, Executive Orders, and Departmental Manual chapters.

· Need to address the importance of including voluntary consensus standards for determining compliance such as those from ANSI or NFPA.

· Need to mention the importance of updating this list and the vital importance of understanding the applicability of new requirements.

· All Departmental Bureau and Office organizational units which manage lands, facilities, operations, and uses thereof.

Each of the above organizational units must develop its own program to reflect its unique mission.

The program must be implemented. See section 2.5 D on a schedule for completing baseline audits. To demonstrate a realistic implementation plan, information on the number of facilities, scope of compliance issues, source of auditors, and budget issues should be specified.

The program must be documented. See section 2.5. A documented program means a written policy, guidance, plan, and protocols that would assure an outside reviewer of the program that it exists and is consistent with this chapter and that compliance could be measured.

The environmental auditing program addresses the universe of auditable entities such as lands, facilities, and operations.

The specific objectives of an environmental auditing program are now specified. These should be defined in measurable terms.

Traditional audits are "report cards" on compliance status. Because the Department insists that the program assure compliance, a much more difficult task, a "report card" system will not be good enough. This program will require (1) higher levels of competence in staff, (2) a tight feed-back information mechanism for tracking results and corrective actions, and (3) consistent follow-up..

· One example is pollution prevention.

· This means that the Department should (1) conduct audits of user activities or (2) request environmental compliance information from users, or (3) specify that users conduct environmental audits and submit results to the Department.

· Receipt and disposition of information from audits should be handled in accordance with Departmental or Bureau and Office record keeping provisions.

Section 2.4 Policy specified that the program must be documented. This section explains exactly what, at a minimum, must be documented.

· "Operations" in this case means all auditable entities such as lands, facilities and operations as specified in the Policy (2.4) and Purpose (2.1).

· A schedule specifying the frequency of audits must be established and documented. For example, a rolling schedule projection may be every 2-3 years for successive audits at a particular facility.

· Scheduling should be according to the degree of environmental compliance risk. Priority and intensity should be directed towards those entities where a high degree of environmental compliance risk occurs. All entities need not be audited with the same frequency and scope, but a rationale needs to be supplied for differing frequency of audits.

"Protocol" is addressed in section 2.5 A in detail. It is a procedure not a checklist, a concept which is often confused.

· Documentation must exist that shows all findings were addressed in a timely manner.

· Legal issues associated with documentation of possible non-compliance situations should be addressed here.

Bureaus and offices must be capable of reporting on the status of their environmental auditing programs.

A. Environmental Audit Protocol.

B. Qualifications of Environmental Auditing Personnel and Training.

C. Baseline Environmental Audits.

D. Environmental Auditing Findings and Corrective Actions.

· Each of these four areas are addressed separately in the following pages.

The protocol is the plan for an individual audit.

Most protocols are organized into three parts:

· Pre-visit

· Site-visit

· Post-visit

They are further organized by compliance functional area.

ASTM, other standards, and EPA guidance documents, on environmental auditing are useful as guides.

· This list is based upon commonly accepted practices both within and outside of the Department.

Need to describe job functions for auditors, lead auditors, and audit team leader (see Section 2.5 C). The job functions should be spread out over the audit protocol to ensure all aspects are covered: Pre-visit, Site-visit, and Post-visit. Specific activities include updating regulatory information, collecting entity information, interviewing, reviewing records, compiling results, reporting, and offering assistance.

· "Users" (third definition here) means a user of the audit information.

Means the audit schedule. For example, an audit may take about 40 hours of work and a site-visit may range anywhere from one to five days.

Site-visit activities must be arranged in advance to make the audit most productive. Touring, interviewing, record reviewing, and inspections can be disruptive to both the auditor(s) and the audited entity.

In general, an auditor’s preliminary "working papers" related to an environmental audit do not fall under public disclosure. However, final reports relating to an environmental audit may be subject to public disclosure. It is recommended that any specific issues relating to disclosure be discussed with the Office of the Solicitor.

Audit protocols may be "home-made," adaptations of others, or store-bought as long as they meet the requirements of this chapter (i.e. documented).

This minimum range of regulated areas is required for an environmental audit.

· In any case, Bureaus and Offices have some flexibility in designing their protocols, as long as the minimum range of regulated areas is covered.

· This is a mandatory requirement.

· This requirement applies to internal (Bureau or Office) and external (contracted or other Department) auditors.

— Skills: such as communication, interpersonal, observational, and analytical.

— Knowledge: such as of this policy, environmental requirements (i.e., laws and regulations), the types of facilities to be audited, audit standards, compliance assistance, pollution control technology.

— Experience: such as years of experience in auditing as a lead auditor or audit team member.

· Auditors are required to prove that they are "qualified" before providing auditing services.

· Third party certification of auditors is permissible if the certification program ensures that its standard meets or exceeds the qualification requirements specified by the organizational unit.

· Training may be internal or external.

· Training may be through a formal training session or through a mentoring relationship (OJT) or a combination of both.

· Training must be documented.

· Training should not be a one-time event. Some type of "refresher training" should be implemented.

· Baseline environmental audits must be defined. Typically a baseline audit is a first-time audit that addresses compliance aspects)

· This means that, within five years, all baseline audit reports are complete and data is in a reporting system.

· This does not mean only that all auditable sites have been visited.

· Audits are done when paperwork is done.

· Corrective actions do not have to be completed within the five year deadline, however they must be realistically scheduled for completion of corrective actions.

The definition of "independent" includes the following aspects:

· Not affected by management at the audited entity.

· Not eligible to benefit from corrective action or follow-on work.

· "Facility" in this sentence refers to the audited entity which means "lands, facilities, and operations" as defined in Section 2.1.

Bureaus and Offices have the freedom to define "independent" for their own programs, but it must be consistent with the above aspects that are common to any definition..

· Regardless of whether they have been corrected during the site-visit or at any time during an audit.

· "Can not determine" is a finding.

· Good (notable) practices may also be recorded.

Must be reported (written copy preferred).

Allows Bureaus and Offices to develop their own reporting formats, subject to their conformance with the above requirements for environmental audit findings.

"Conditions" would include the following aspects:

· First-hand observations.

· Data from records.

· "Reliable" testimony.

The auditor must have a sufficient body of evidence from all or any of the three aspects to create a reasonable belief.

· A condition about to occur.

· A condition which may result in death or serious injury or serious damage.

· problem.

· The requirements may be for time periods or for specific types of response.