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Is your program officially or unofficially multimedia? Explain.
The Arkansas
Business
Assistance Program (BAP) is officially multimedia. We provide
compliance assistance for all regulatory media that the Arkansas
Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) has delegation including
mining, regulated storage tanks, and solid waste.
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How and when did
your program start as multimedia?
I’m not sure of
the exact date as I’ve only been with the program for 3 years. But
the program has been multimedia since its beginning.
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Does your program provide confidential services? Explain.
If a client
contacts us and their contact is not the result of a referral from
another media division, we keep all dealings with that client
confidential from the regulatory side of our agency. But all
records and documents are still subject to Freedom of Information
requests from the public.
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What role does
the Ombudsman play? What is the relevance of the Ombudsman’s role
to the multimedia component?
In the Arkansas
BAP the Ombudsman is a “transparent” role that rests with the
manager of the program. It is difficult to try to distinguish when
the manager is acting as manager or as Ombudsman. We see the role
of Ombudsman as being an advocate for the small businesses of
Arkansas. This includes working internally at ADEQ to assist small
businesses in resolving problems, working to change regulations to
lessen the impact on small businesses, and helping to resolve
enforcement actions against small businesses. We see the Ombudsman
simply as an advocate for small business regardless of the media
involved.
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What types of multimedia assistance does your program provide (air,
hazardous waste, solid waste, water quality, air, other)? Describe
your program.
As mentioned
above, we work with all media that ADEQ regulates. This includes
air, water, solid waste, hazardous waste, mining, and regulated
storage tanks. When we assist a facility, even if just to provide
assistance in air permitting, we look at all the regulatory issues
that might be involved. In addition, even though ADEQ does not have
delegation for EPCRA programs, we do try to educate our clients in
those regulations.
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Is your program’s work prioritized? If yes, explain (e.g., by
media, rule, industry sector).
Not really. We
do try to pay special attention to small businesses and new
businesses, but we have no set priorities.
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Describe how
multimedia assistance is provided:
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Through
referrals to appropriate regulatory media staff?
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Through
personal contact with resources outside your program (e.g.,
arranging meetings with regulatory staff from different media,
having each program outline their respective rule requirements,
following up as needed)?
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Through
internal expertise (e.g., gathering all information, presenting
as package, walking client through requirements)?
It depends on
the situation. Up until recently, our staff (was 2 and is now 1)
was versed enough on the different media regulations that we could
provide assistance on most issues with little consultation from
other media staff. We do work very closely with members of each of
the regulatory divisions to have people we can consult with when we
have specific questions that we aren’t able to answer. There have
been limited occasions where we had a specific situation that needed
an interpretation of the regulations (hazardous waste mostly) where
we have brought in a member of that media division to work with our
client.
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What types of
assistance activities does your program provide (e.g., onsite
visits, training programs, permit assistance)?
Our program
provides assistance through site visits, site audits, training
programs, booths and displays at industry meetings, permitting
assistance, help solving enforcement issues, writing programs (storm
water pollution prevention plans, inspection plans, etc.), and
meeting permit requirements (air emissions spreadsheets). In
addition, we provide telephone and e-mail consultation to callers
from both the public and industry.
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Do you have program staff members with expertise in pollution
prevention/EMS, as well as regulatory compliance?
While we try to
provide information on pollution prevention/waste minimization/EMS,
we don’t have a level of expertise to provide in-depth assistance on
these areas. We can provide contacts with other assistance
providers that can provide that type of help.
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What range of
industry sectors has your program helped with multimedia
assistance? List all types of participating businesses.
Sawmills, boat
manufacturers, fertilizer manufacturers, foundries, asphalt plants,
secondary aluminum (sweat furnaces at scrap metal yards), auto
salvage yards, wood furniture manufacturers, construction sites
(storm water), cotton gins, grain elevators, printers, sand/gravel
pits, trailer manufacturers, pharmacies, auto part manufacturers,
candle manufacturers, river ports, animal shelters, bathroom fixture
manufacturers, and railcar painters.
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Are there any industry sectors for which you cannot provide
assistance or can provide only limited assistance? Explain.
Arkansas has
not been delegated responsibility for the dry cleaner NESHAP or NSPS.
While most states do a lot of outreach with dry cleaners, we only
work with them on hazardous waste issues.
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Where is your program housed (state environmental regulatory agency,
Small Business Development Center [SBDC], college or university [not
SBDC], other state agency)?
Our program is
housed in a regulatory agency (ADEQ) but in a non-regulatory
division (Public Outreach & Assistance). We are not affiliated with
the Air Division at ADEQ.
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Where does
funding come from for your multimedia program (air permit fees only,
air permit fees plus other sources, task-specific funding, other)?
What are the funding criteria? Please note that since this could be
sensitive information, this is an optional question.
Our program is
funded from air permit fees and general revenue funds.
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How many staff
does your program have (using FTE-full time employee equivalents)?
Our program has
approval and funding for three FTE. This consists of a program
manager, a technical assistance engineer, and an administrative
assistant who runs our loan program.
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Does your
program have a documented performance measurement system (system to
track data on activities such as web site hits, hotline/telephone
assistance calls, mailings, onsite visits, publications,
seminars/workshops/ trainings, teleconferences/videoconferences,
other)? Describe.
As part of our
agency’s outreach program, we are required to document all phone
calls, e-mails, contacts, presentations and site visits conducted by
our program. We also document all training received and
conferences/meetings attended. We used to have a Performance Based
Budgeting system where our budget was based on those indicators, but
that system is being discontinued.
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What have been
the benefits of providing multimedia versus air only assistance?
Have you performed any cost benefit analyses? Describe your
successes.
In our opinion,
providing multimedia assistance simply provides a better service to
our clients. We recently worked with a facility that mixes
fiberglass resin with marble dust to make bathroom fixtures (baths,
sinks, showers). As part of their process they wipe down their
fixtures with acetone to clean them. They then allow the acetone to
evaporate and the fiberglass mixture to set up. If we were simply
an air program we would have accounted for their acetone emissions
in their permit, since AR regulates acetone, and been done with it.
Since we are multimedia we were able to recognize that this process
constitutes treatment of hazardous waste. This could have been a
huge problem for the client. Being multimedia provides a “bigger
picture” for our clients in helping their business be in compliance.
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Provide an
overall link or links to your online multimedia assistance web
page(s), checklists, calculation spreadsheets, guidance, factsheets,
publications, and contacts.
www.adeq.state.ar.us/poa/businessasst.htm
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What kind of peer assistance (for other SBO/SBAP programs) is your
program willing to contribute at this time (information provided
here only, telephone/email assistance, program visits, training,
other)?
If time and
resources are available, I would be willing to help out other
programs in whatever way needed including all the ways mentioned
above.
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Please list the industry sectors that you assist/have assisted most,
and feel you have "expert" knowledge about. If possible, use
the provided list of industry sector examples to categorize (www.smallbiz-enviroweb.org/sba/multimediafiles/Questions_MentorPrograms.pdf).
You may also be more specific, include additional details, or write
in a category that is not listed. In addition, please provide
contact information for each industry sector "expert."
Currently I am
a one-man operation here and I don't really have a sector area where
I would consider myself an "expert." I do a little bit of
everything.
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Provide contact information for peer assistance with your program.
Darren Morrissey –
Arkansas Business Assistance Program
Arkansas Dept. of Environmental Quality
(501) 682-0824 –
Morrissey@adeq.state.ar.us
4/05,
updated 10/05
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