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July 24, 2000
A "business area" is a natural grouping of business activities and information needs. Ecology's business areas were identified as part of the 1995 information strategic planning process by analyzing the agency’s business activities and information needs and "clustering" activities that create or update similar types of information.
The 24 business areas identified for Ecology in 1995 are listed and defined below. Since the 1995 analysis, "site cleanup" has been identified as a potential additional business area. In addition, "program coordination and development" has become more significant given the recent attention to water and salmon issues and watershed management initiatives.
Facility & Site Identification
The identification and location of entities which are of interest to Ecology due to their affects upon the environment. The universe of such entities includes:
The function of identifying facility and sites requires that the entity’s geographic location and its associated companies and individuals (e.g. owner, operator) be known.
Natural Resources
The identification and location of natural resources which may be at threat by activities which the agency regulates or influences. These natural resources include :
Laboratory Analysis
Performing field and lab-based analysis of samples, resulting in analytical data detailing levels of pollution identified by those samples. This analysis can be performed by the agency laboratories or by a licensed external laboratory.
The collection and analysis of analytical data which helps determine the environmental condition of air, land and water throughout the state. These activities include ambient monitoring of background levels of specific chemicals and regulatory sampling of pollutant levels in the vicinity of sources of pollution.
The information is collected by :
Submission of sampling data by external stakeholders (such as permit applicants, local authorities and public interest groups).
Facility/Site Activities and Release Description & Characterization
Collection of detailed information about regulated community activities including pollution release and resource usage. This information can be collected by formal reporting from the facility/site, or as a result of investigation. The types of information collected include :
The format and definition of the information collected is defined by many different rules and they often have overlaps with other collection efforts within the agency.
Permit Development and Tracking
Processing applications for, and developing detailed specification of, Ecology authorized environmental activities. Such activities include :
Compliance Monitoring
Ensuring that environmentally affecting activities being performed by the regulated community are within the bounds of their legal obligations. This is achieved by agency investigations of such activities and, when non-compliance is identified, facilitating a return to compliance.
Examples of non-compliance includes :
The information provided by the area includes inspection schedules and details, non-compliance records and compliance action plans.
If non-compliance action taken by the agency do not result in a return to compliance, then formal enforcement may ensue; this function is included in a separate business area.
Incident Response
The capture, review and follow up of information about reported incidents of environmental damage, including public complaints. This allows the agency to effectively manage and respond to events that have a negative effect on the environment.
Site Cleanup
(NOTE: To be defined. This business area was not identified in the 1995 information strategic planning process. This business area includes many of the activities of the Toxics Cleanup and Nuclear Waste programs related to the remediation of contaminated sites.)
Taking formal actions against businesses or individuals which are out of compliance and are not taking appropriate actions to ameliorate the situation. Enforcement can be implemented by legal actions which may result in a case being prosecuted against the offender and may lead to a fine being imposed upon them.
Regulatory and Voluntary Activity Assistance (i.e. Technical Assistance)
Providing assistance to the regulated community to facilitate their compliance with environmental obligations. This function partially implements the agency's strategy of pollution prevention and is becoming more prevalent as an alternative to compliance monitoring and enforcement.
Site visits are provided to facilities to assist them in identifying their obligations. These visits are targeted (e.g. shop sweeps) to get the most positive environmental effects from the assistance provided by the agency.
Efforts such as waste minimization and toxics reduction are implemented by encouraging businesses to implement reduction plans and report their progress to the agency.
Monitoring of agency staff time by providing project and task descriptions, allocation of staff resources and subsequently recording levels of effort expended on individual tasks by each project member. The information this satisfies many operational needs (such as payroll and cost recovery for cleanup) and also supports management decision making (such as budgeting and program coordination).
The information recorded often needs to be tied to specifics about the task, for example, the facility/site which the effort was required for. To support the types of analysis required, the information must be integrated with the agencies other information bases.
Implementation of the agencies fee-based cost recovery approach. This includes the defining of the fee rules, the calculation and production of invoices, and the administration of payments received from the fee payers. Although the fee rules tend to be very program specific, the mechanisms for invoicing and payment receipt can be standardized.
Budgeting
The preparation of, and modifications to the biennial budget. Budgeting is performed initially at the agency level and then at the individual Program level.
Contract Administration
Selecting and administering external organizations to provide services to the agency for specific periods of time.
External Reporting and Outreach
Providing reports from Agency information systems to the legislature, other government agencies and the public. Provision of training, and dissemination of educational materials to increase public awareness of environmental management issues and the role of the agency in the state.
Funding
Application for and management of granted funds from EPA and other stakeholders.
Grant Administration
Administration of grants assigned by the agency to organizations charged with supporting the agencies activities.
Human Resource Management
Create a supportive work environment and provide training and developmental opportunities to develop a workforce that reflects the diversity of the community Ecology serves.
Information Services
Planning, data administration, application development and maintenance, training and user support, data communications and network services, and computer operations.
Interested Party Involvement
Categorizing and maintaining address lists of external parties interested in the information which the agency maintains.
Policy Development and Planning
Development of national and regional policies at a high level that have potential for impact with the agency’s operations. Complying with federal requirements (such as biennial reporting), the State / EPA Agreement, participation in authorization negotiations and implementing state equivalents of federal regulations. Assessing the impacts to the agency of actions from the Legislature. These actions may have been initiated by the agency.
Program Coordination and Development
Management of programs to ensure Federal and state rules and regulations are being implemented correctly, programs efforts are coordinated, and that programs are achieving departmental objectives.
Purchasing and Inventory
Authorization and administration of the purchasing of any equipments which the agency requires. Administration of the location, use and status of all Agency assets. Such assets include facilities and vehicles.
Regulatory Planning and Administration
Developing rules and regulations which reflect statutory intent and/or state interpretation of federal rules.
None of Ecology's business areas are totally self-contained. There are numerous dependencies among them for required information. The diagram below depicts generalized relationships among selected business areas. Since there are dependencies which link any given business area to nearly every other business area, only the major dependencies are shown.
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