Environmental Progress - Winter 2002

Exciting Year Ahead for IEPA

Director Cipriano

We have made great progress toward a cleaner and healthier environment in Illinois in the last 32 years, since the Illinois Environmental Protection Act was signed by Governor Richard Ogilvie and the Illinois EPA became the first true state environmental agency. Our air and water are demonstrably cleaner and the improper disposal of hazardous materials has become the exception and not the rule.

We have achieved great things with traditional environmental regulation but there are many ways to supplement that success with innovation, flexibility and assistance.

The approaches, regulations, laws and attitudes toward our environment have changed and evolved over those years, but we continue to be challenged to use new approaches and create new partnerships and dialogues.

I would like to tell you about some exciting priorities for the Illinois EPA for this year.

We will continue to take a leadership role in environmental regulatory innovation and flexibility, such as expanding on the success of the Emissions Reduction Market System. That program is now in its second year of full implementation and in its first year exceeded its goals of reducing pollutants that contribute to smog while providing flexibility and potential cost savings to industrial sources. The next generation of environmental regulation and compliance assistance will also include working with more companies on environmental management agreements and expanding e-commerce by making more forms and information available on the web.

Electronic monitoring reports

This includes a new initiative, the Electronic Discharge Monitoring Report Project, that will allow the more than 2, 600 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit holders to provide their monthly discharge analysis reports to the Agency electronically over the Internet. We are also continuing work on ACES -- the Agency Compliance and Enforcement System. This involves the formidable task of creating an integrated electronic database of information from each of the Agency's three bureaus, the Division of Legal Counsel and the Office of Chemical Safety. The database will not only provide quicker access to more complete data on specific sites for the use of our staff, but will also be integrated into an online information system for the industry and the public to quickly check on compliance and enforcement issues.

The Agency will continue to work with the U.S. EPA to explore new innovative approaches through our performance partnership agreement.

We are increasing the availability of compliance assistance tools to help businesses meet their legal responsibilities as well as reduce waste. Recently, the Illinois EPA joined the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce in holding a series of compliance assistance seminars for business. Our Office of Pollution Prevention will continue plant visits to provide helpful information to companies and the summer internship program which provides graduate engineering students to do pollution prevention assessments. We also continue to work with our field staff to integrate pollution prevention into permit inspections. The Office of Small Business will increase its efforts to provide plain-language assistance, both through individual contacts and publications.

More local partnerships

This year we will redouble our efforts to reach out to local governments and community groups and strengthen those working relationships. Resources we provide local governments include drinking water and wastewater system improvement loans, brownfields assistance to reclaim abandoned contaminated sites and co-sponsoring household hazardous waste collections.

This summer we will be hosting a series of roundtable discussions at several locations around Illinois with local government officials. We want to make sure the programs are known, usable and understandable to them and get their input on how we can help more.

Illinois EPA works closely with community groups through such programs as Partners for Clean Air and the Volunteer Lake Monitoring Program. Empowering citizens groups is important so they can work together with us to protect and enhance the environment.

Green Initiatives

In my prior job as senior advisor to Governor Ryan on the environment and natural resources, I was privileged to work with him on two new exciting initiatives -- Green Illinois and Illinois Tomorrow. Both of them will help empower local government and community officials and take a big picture approach to achieving sustainable environments.

In December, Gov. Ryan issued a broad-based executive order to implement a "greener" approach to operations, purchasing and construction activities by state agencies. The goal is for state agencies to lead by example through reducing pollution, saving energy and conserving resources. The Green Government Coordinating Council that I co-chair recently issued its first report highlighting examples of steps already taken by state agencies to achieve these goals. Illinois EPA is providing workshops for state agencies to increase awareness of good green government practices.

The other component of Green Illinois is the Green Communities Demonstration Grant program. The purpose of the program is to assist municipal officials in engaging local citizens and interest groups in a planning process that identifies what the city's environment would look like 20-30 years into the future and outline an action plan for getting there. Communities are asked to look at energy efficiency, resource conservation and green space and design. Governor Ryan strongly believes that communities need to build their capacity to plan for future generations at the local level. However, communities that participate in the program will also be eligible for special consideration for state programs that can assist them to implement their goals.

A complementary program is Illinois Tomorrow - Governor Ryan's balanced growth initiative. A handbook of state programs to assist communities in this effort is available, and 14 communities or organizations around the state were recently recognized with the first Illinois Tomorrow awards for projects that exemplify the principles of Illinois Tomorrow.

We will be setting a priority to expand our outreach and educational efforts. We are working on making our web site more accessible and user-friendly. The "Envirofun" program to promote good environmental stewardship by young people continues, with new adventures of Captain Redbird, Captain Earthworm and Captain Bluegill now available on the Illinois EPA web site and Governor Ryan's Kids Site. Our recently-revised environmental education packet for 5th and 6th grade students has gone out to hundreds of classrooms across the state and we anticipate more creative entries in our annual poster and prose contest.

More outreach to young people

We will also be initiating new outreach efforts to high school and college students, providing information on both environmental issues and environmental careers. I urge Environmental Progress readers to share their suggestions and thoughts on how we can work together to promote environmental stewardship and sustainable urban and rural development for all ages.