Air Enforcement in Region V -- Federal or State Lead??

[asagady@sojourn.com]

While sitting here in East Lansing, waiting for a mission.....

...I decided to play some web page data games with
EPA Region V enforcement information that is displayed
on the Air Division enforcement section at Region V...

Here are the compiled results for which agency (state or federal) is taking 
the air enforcement lead on how many cases in Region V.
This is essentially a snapshot as of 9/8/97 of unresolved
air enforcement cases as of that date.

Compiled from EPA Region V Air Division Enforcement Web Page Data		
						
		Number	Number	Percent	Number	Percent
		of cases	Federal	Federal	State	State
			Lead	Lead	Lead	Lead
						
Illinois		140	28	20%	112	80%
Indiana		115	5	4%	110	96%
Michigan		50	42	84%	8	16%
Ohio		24	12	50%	12	50%
Minnesota	16	1	6%	15	94%
Wisconsin	26	17	65%	9	35%
						
As of 9/8/97						
						

Note that Michigan is leaving most of its air enforcement to the feds;
Ohio's caseload is unrealistically low given the large number of 
sources that are in that state.  Although Indiana seems to
be taking most of its enforcement cases, I'd really like to know if
they are getting the kinds of penalties that the feds would get.

Each of these states has a varying number of sources that would
account for some of these differences.  Note also that there can 
be multiple cases on a single source, included mixed cases between
the states and the feds.

Each of these Region V states is supposed to be reporting all 
enforcement actions to the feds under their delegation agreements.
It is possible that some purely state regulation violation that don't
have federal consequences are not listed above in the case totals.

You can view the actual data on who has unresolved violations in Region V
by going to:

http://www.epa.gov/ARD-R5/enforce/enforce.htm

and selecting the first item on the list....

Elsewhere at that menu, you can get copies of notices of violations
and other enforcement related documents.

Dave Kee's staff at U.S. EPA does a really good job on the whole 
Air Division's site, so you may want to browse around.

Unfortunately, this kind of information is harder to get in other regions....

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alex J. Sagady & Associates        Email:  asagady@sojourn.com
Environmental Consulting and Database Systems
PO Box 39  East Lansing, MI  48826-0039  
(517) 332-6971 (voice); (517) 332-8987 (fax)