Louisiana Administrative Code
Title 33 - ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Part I - Office of the Secretary
Subpart 1 - Departmental Administrative Procedures
Chapter 25 - Beneficial Environmental Projects
Section I-2505 - Project Categories
Universal Citation: LA Admin Code I-2505
Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 9, September 20, 2024
A. A BEP must be within one or more of the following categories.
1. Public Health. A public health project
provides diagnostic, preventative, and/or remedial components of human health
care that is related to the actual or potential damage to human health caused
by a violation of environmental law or mismanagement of substances containing
constituents detrimental to human health. This may include, but is not limited
to, epidemiological data collection and analysis, medical examinations of
potentially affected persons, collection and analysis of blood/fluid/tissue
samples, medical treatment, and rehabilitation therapy.
2. Pollution Prevention
a. A pollution prevention project is one that
reduces the generation of pollution through "source reduction," i.e., any
practice that reduces the amount of any hazardous substance, pollutant, or
contaminant entering any waste stream or otherwise being released into the
environment, prior to recycling, treatment, or disposal. (After the pollutant
or waste stream has been generated, pollution prevention is no longer possible
and the waste must be handled by appropriate recycling, treatment, containment,
or disposal methods.)
b. Source
reduction may include equipment or technology modifications, process or
procedure modifications, reformulation or redesign of products, substitution of
raw materials, and improvements in housekeeping, maintenance, training,
inventory control, or other operation and maintenance procedures. Pollution
prevention also includes any project which protects natural resources through
conservation or increased efficiency in the use of energy, water, or other
materials. In-process recycling, wherein waste materials produced during a
manufacturing process are returned directly to production as raw materials on
site, is considered a pollution prevention project.
c. In all cases, for a project to meet the
definition of pollution prevention, there must be an overall decrease in the
amount and/or toxicity of pollution released to the environment, not merely a
transfer of pollution among media. This decrease may be achieved directly or
through increased efficiency (conservation) in the use of energy, water, or
other materials.
3.
Pollution Reduction. If the pollutant or waste stream already has been
generated or released, a pollution reduction approach, which employs recycling,
treatment, containment, or disposal techniques, may be appropriate. A pollution
reduction project is one that results in a decrease in the amount and/or
toxicity of any hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant entering any
waste stream or otherwise being released into the environment by an operating
business or facility by a means which does not qualify as "pollution
prevention." This may include the installation of more effective end-of-process
control or treatment technology, or improved containment, or safer disposal of
an existing pollutant source. Pollution reduction also includes "out-of-process
recycling," wherein industrial waste collected after the manufacturing process
and/or consumer waste materials are used as raw materials for production
off-site.
4. Environmental
Restoration and Protection. An environmental restoration and protection project
is one that goes beyond repairing the damage caused by the violation to enhance
the condition of any ecosystem or geographic area. These projects may be used
to restore or protect natural environments (including ecosystems) and man-made
environments (including the removal/mitigation of contaminated materials, such
as soils, asbestos, and leaded paint, from facilities and buildings). Also
included is any project which protects the ecosystem from actual or potential
damage resulting from violations of state environmental regulations or improves
the overall environmental condition of the ecosystem or geographic area.
Examples of these projects include: restoration of a wetland; purchase and
management of a watershed area or environmentally sensitive area; and providing
for the protection of endangered species, i.e., developing conservation
programs or habitat protection and enhancement.
5. Assessments and Audits
a. The four types of assessments/audits are:
i. pollution prevention
assessments;
ii. site
assessments;
iii. environmental
management system audits; and
iv.
compliance audits.
b.
These assessment or audit projects must be performed by an entity approved by
the department. The defendant/respondent must agree to provide a certified copy
of the assessment or audit to the department along with an implementation
report to detail the action(s) taken and/or to defend the facility's decision
to forego implementation of the suggested changes listed in the audit report.
Settlement agreements which include assessment and/or audit projects may be
constructed with stipulated penalty amounts for failure to implement suggested
changes included in the report that the department deems appropriate based on
an assessment of the certified implementation report provided by the facility.
Assessments and audits may not include projects that are required by
enforcement and/or legal requirements.
6. Environmental Compliance Promotion. An
environmental compliance promotion project provides training or technical
support to identify, achieve and maintain compliance with applicable statutory
and regulatory requirements; avoid committing a violation with respect to such
statutory and regulatory requirements; go beyond compliance by reducing the
generation, release, or disposal of pollutants to a level below the legally
required limits; or promote environmental education, including awareness of
potential risks or harm to the public health and the environment. In all cases,
the department will specify the approved party responsible for developing and
providing the environmental compliance promotion project. Acceptable projects
may include, but are not limited to, the production and or sponsorship of
seminar(s) related to environmental obligations, regulations, and improvement
techniques.
7. Emergency Planning,
Preparedness, and Response. An emergency planning and preparedness project
provides assistance to a responsible state or local emergency planning,
preparedness, or response entity. This is to enable these organizations to
further fulfill their obligations to collect information to assess the dangers
of hazardous chemicals present in a response situation, to develop emergency
plans and/or procedures, to train emergency response personnel, and to better
respond to emergency situations. These projects may include providing computers
and software, communication systems, chemical emission detection and
inactivation equipment, or hazardous materials equipment or training.
8. Other Projects. Projects determined by the
department to have environmental merit that do not fit within at least one of
the seven categories above may be accepted if they are otherwise fully
consistent with the intent of these rules.
AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with R.S. 30:2011(D)(1), 2031, and 2050.7(E).
Disclaimer: These regulations may not be the most recent version. Louisiana may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.
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