Cal/EPA Launches Pilot Environmental Management Projects

SACRAMENTO – California Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Winston Hickox today announced the kickoff the Cal/EPA Environmental Management System (EMS) Project by approving seven pilot projects.

The Cal/EPA EMS Project was created by state law last year when Governor Gray Davis signed AB 1102, authored by State Senator Byron Sher and Assembly members Lou Correa, Hannah-Beth Jackson, George Nakano, and Sarah Reyes.

The Cal/EPA Environmental Management System Project is designed to determine whether EMSs can be implemented at government and business facilities to produce higher levels of environmental performance and better information about environmental protection programs for the public. The project is also designed to build collaborative partnerships between government, business, and public interest groups that may lead to giving businesses some flexibility in managing their environmental affairs in exchange for producing environment results that exceed the minimum regulatory compliance levels usually associated with the traditional adversarial regulatory approach.

"Innovative environmental management systems hold great promise as the next generation of environmental regulation," said Secretary Hickox. "To achieve environmental performance results that exceed the minimum compliance level, government, business, and environmental organizations must be willing to go beyond the existing regulatory framework and work together for common benefit."

Secretary Hickox today approved the following seven pilot EMS projects:

• The Anheuser-Busch brewery in Fairfield;
• IBM Corporation in San Jose;
• Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company (formerly known as the Skunk Works) in Palmdale;
• Metal finishing companies – Artistic Plating in Anaheim and Gene’s Plating in Los Angeles;
• Pentel of America in Torrance;
• Vineyards and wineries – Davis Bynum Winery and Benzinger Family Winery in Sonoma County; and
• Wastewater treatment facilities – Central Marin Sanitation Agency and the San Diego Metropolitan Wastewater Operations and Maintenance Department.

The selection of pilot projects will be followed by development and implementation of specific project plans – environmental management systems – for each of the projects. Two advisory groups, one in Northern California and the other in Southern California, composed of representatives from government, business, and environmental and other public-interest groups will regularly review and provide input on project implementation. Cal/EPA will provide quarterly reports on the EMS Project to the state Legislature, with a final report in January 2002, analyzing the feasibility, cost, and environmental benefits of environmental management systems.

The pilot projects make up the first phase of the Cal/EPA EMS Project. The projects are intended as a learning process for developing partnerships between government, business, and environmental groups, and for designing and working with EMSs in a variety of different contexts – in the public and private sectors, and in small and large-scale applications.

The next phase of the project involves getting specific companies and facilities to commit to specific environmental outcomes that exceed what is required by law, both in environmental impact areas that are governed by legal requirements and in areas that are unregulated.

The third phase of the project will apply the EMS concept to specific regions of the state in which many companies in a region participate in a plan to achieve specific goals to improve environmental conditions such as air quality, water quality, and habitat restoration.

The eventual goal is development of a plan for a sustainable California. This plan would identify achievable environmental goals and environmental performance requirements for various sectors within the state to achieve those goals. The ultimate outcome of this plan is a sustainable California in which economic growth and business activity do not degrade the environment, thereby preserving a healthy environment and natural resources for future generations of Californians.

Additional detailed information on the Cal/EPA Environmental Management System Project is available on the Internet at www.calepa.ca.gov/ems.

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