The Department of Environmental Protection Tuesday announced it is restarting a process to improve statewide consistency in the way DEP conducts inspections of regulated entities and activities, ensures compliance with state and federal laws and regulations, and handles enforcement cases.

“The result of this process will be a general, inspection, compliance, and enforcement policy aimed at improving consistency for all our program-specific policies,” said DEP Secretary John Quigley. “This foundation will help to ensure that our work across all programs is internally aligned, consistent, and in compliance with state and federal regulatory requirements.”

In keeping with DEP’s commitment to transparency, the process will include a public notice and comment period, anticipated to occur in the summer.

DEP first launched a compliance monitoring initiative in 2013, to evaluate compliance and enforcement policies and strategies, and update a 2004 internal policy on how the agency handles violations of law and Commonwealth regulations. Recommendations were drafted but never implemented.

This month, Secretary Quigley re-energized the initiative, starting with an internal review of DEP policies on inspections, compliance, and enforcement. The internal review is expected to be completed in May, followed by the public comment period.

4/11/2016