EPA Eyes Greater Use Of Remote Compliance Monitoring Post-Pandemic

摘要

EPA is eyeing the expansion of remote video tools for environmental compliance monitoring, signaling it plans to apply the tools that it is piloting in states now due to limits on in-person inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic even after the pandemic ends, according to EPA and state officials. The agency has been working with the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) in piloting the use of remote video technology as an off-site compliance monitoring tool in several states for use in various programs across different media, officials say. The agency is "working with ECOS and states on off-site monitoring, and it's been tremendously successful," EPA enforcement chief Susan Parker Bodine told the Association of State & Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO) Sept. 3 during a virtual Resources Conservation & Recovery Act conference. She added that EPA and states have been working to develop new tools that they plan to use beyond the current public health emergency "because it expands our reach." The pandemic has forced everyone to innovate, and "the innovations with the off-site compliance monitoring have been really great," she said.