For many facility and plant managers, there’s almost nothing worse than a phone call or e-mail from a local, state, or federal regulator stating that they will be stopping by soon to make sure that your facility is complying with relevant regulations.
News of a regulatory inspection can send some managers and their teams into a downright panic.
Some nervousness is only natural. Facility and plant managers wear many hats and are under enormous pressure to be productive and profitable, while being safe and sustainable. It’s all too easy for an important regulatory requirement to be overlooked.
An imminent inspection can create a frenzy of checking for anything missed or done incorrectly. It’s like when parents have been away on a trip but are returning early and the kids left back home are frantically cleaning up after a big party.
From my point of view, if you only start to worry about being in compliance when regulators are coming for a visit… then you probably should be worried!
In any case, it does not have to be that way.
Building a Strong Foundation
In reality, you should be “preparing” for regulatory inspections every day of the year, in a sense, by having a strong environmental, health and safety (EH&S) management system in place and ensuring that everyone at your facility knows what to do, when to do it, and how to do it when it comes to managing EH&S issues.
That way, there is no scrambling to prepare for an inspection. Everything is already in the right place as it should be. Even a surprise inspection is met with limited concern.(Not to mention, having such a plan in place simply lends itself to a smooth-running facility.)
There are several parts to this foundation.
1. Identify and Understand
Your first task is to identify and fully understand all applicable regulations for your facility. Based on that understanding, you must obtain all the proper permits and fully comply with their requirements. And your permits and their requirements must be kept up to date as needed.
Remember that any time you switch raw materials or processes or locations… or make other changes at your facility… that could change the permit conditions or types of permits needed at your facility.
2. Trust but Verify
Once you think you have all the proper permits in place as part of your EH&S management system, your work is not done. Conditions change; things can be overlooked…
But you don’t have to wait for a regulator to tell you your mistakes. Instead, conduct regular audits and self-inspections to spot and remedy trouble areas and unexpected issues.
3. Keep a “Paper” Trail
As you go about these self-inspections, document your findings and keep detailed records. Use these inspections – and the resulting notes, which should be done on a regular basis – as a guide for improvements and preventing similar issues from occurring in the future.
This documentation really is invaluable. With the hustle and bustle of the day-to-day running of a facility, it is easy to forget things, even important details.
Your documentation should include the incident or issue, the cause, and what was done to fix it.
That way if the same or a similar problem pops up again, you can simply go into your notes and, if the same fix is relevant to the current situation, you implement it.
To be clear, your records should also include all the information you have about all your permits and related reporting requirements. That way they are easy to refer to when conducting your audits.
4. Stay Organized
I recommend organizing your records relative to any reporting requirements for regulations you must follow. So, for example, all the files and information you have about your monthly discharge monitoring report for your wastewater discharge permit should be organized and maintained together in the same place.
With the digital storage systems available today, there really is no excuse not to be organized in this way.
5. Keep Up with Training
I’m sure your team has a full regimen of training designed to keep your facility running safely and profitably … as well as in compliance. It includes routine training specific to your facility, mandated regulatory training from OSHA and other agencies, and even training related to a certain product or process.
This is all required training – with deadlines for completion. This is something a regulator will check during their inspection.
It goes without saying that all your employees should go through this required training. But you must also officially document that they have completed it. Otherwise, it doesn’t count in the eyes of regulators. Again, documentation is key.
6. Housekeeping
As you are working hard to stay in compliance with your permit requirements, it can be all too easy to forget some of the basics. I’m talking about keeping your facility clean and orderly. And creating a culture that encourages keeping an eye out for safety hazards and then acting on them.
Make sure walkways are free of trip hazards and items are safely stored on shelves and not liable to fall and possibly injure someone.
Pretty simple stuff – but often overlooked at many facilities!
These simple steps keep things safe every day of the year, and you have the added bonus of not having to scramble to “clean up” when a regulator is coming onsite.
7. During the Inspection
All these efforts will go a long way towards ensuring you’re ready for any future regulatory inspection… not to mention making your facility safe, productive, and profitable.
But you can take some extra steps to ensure that the inspection goes as smoothly as possible.
The next time you have an inspection scheduled, go to the regulator’s website and see if they have any checklists posted for the specific inspection they are going to conduct. Believe it or not, many regulators have these checklists or guidance documents available on their websites! If you have time, you can do your own inspection using these documents and then fix anything that has been somehow overlooked. At the very least, you’ll know where the inspector is going and what they’ll be looking at.
During the actual inspection, designate a point of contact for the regulator. This should be a knowledgeable employee who can answer questions.
Every team member, including the facility or plant manager, should be cooperative. Provide requested documents when asked. Be transparent about your facility’s operations and compliance efforts. Be respectful. Remember to treat others with the respect that you'd like to be shown.
8. After the Inspection
During the inspection, be sure to take notes about areas of concern that are raised by the regulator.
That will give you a heads up on the actual inspection report. Once you get that report, carefully review it. Make sure they are stating the facts correctly and there are no errors. After all, you know your facility better than the regulator. Perhaps they got something wrong. If something is amiss, bring it up.
But, in general, you should act on the findings right away and implement and document corrective actions as needed.
Then, use those findings as a basis for further improvement of your EH&S management practices.
Your Next Steps
There is no reason to fear regulators or inspections at your facility.
In fact, they should be viewed as an opportunity to improve operations and as the inspiration for making your EH&S program robust and more effective. That way not only are you prepared for regulators, but you have a safely run and productive facility.
As with anything, things change and the unexpected can happen, so your management system will always be a work in progress… something you can build on and improve.
As always, my team and I at Envision Environmental, Inc. are ready to help prepare you and your facility for your next regulatory inspection. Just call me, Mark Roman, at 609-208-1885 or get in touch via e-mail at markroman@envisionenvironmental.com.
