Successes

Previous allegations of noncompliance by the prior owner of a nonhazardous waste processing facility created a challenging enforcement environment for the new owner of a Michigan facility. We assisted the new owner in resolving the outstanding enforcement issues so that the company could continue revenue-producing activity while achieving compliance with applicable regulations.

• We studied the client's operation and the financial impacts of the company's various processes. This essential first step helped to focus the company's available resources on the processes of greatest importance to ongoing financial stability.
  
  
• We identified the compliance issues that had been raised by USEPA and MDEQ and worked with company personnel and outside technical consultants to identify an appropriate response. We prioritized the compliance tasks so that the company could sustain the business with revenue-generating activities while responding to agency enforcement concerns.
  
  
• To keep the client focused and to measure progress, we created a compliance matrix that described short- and long-term tasks for resolving each issue. We assigned responsibility for completing each compliance task and met regularly with the client to measure results.
  
  
• We worked with the company's staff and management to create workable strategies for managing ongoing operations to avoid future noncompliance.
  
  
• We drafted responses to notices of violation and letters of warning so that the administrative record presented the facts accurately and reflected the company's ongoing compliance efforts.
  
  
• With other company representatives, we negotiated a final consent order that allows the company to continue operations on an interim basis while resolving remaining compliance concerns. The consent order provides for a penalty that is a fraction of the penalty originally proposed by MDEQ.

One of our clients is back on track after we helped to negotiate a consent agreement that resolved MDEQ's concerns that the client violated hazardous waste rules. MDEQ held back the client's permit and proposed a consent order that included an unmanageable penalty. We used agency guidance to identify legal and factual circumstances that justified a revised consent order and lower penalty. We focused on negotiating a consent order that

• clearly defined the tasks necessary to satisfy the order,
  
  
• provided an opportunity for the client to terminate the order quickly upon achieving compliance; and
  
  
• reflected a penalty amount that was less than 1/2 the amount originally proposed by MDEQ.