All regulated businesses are required by the State of California to comply with new electronic reporting (e-reporting) requirements, starting with a new State Unified Program Electronic Reporting Surcharge that is effective July 1, 2009. The State system first went live with a limited number of facilities in the fall of 2009. Please note that many of the details on exactly how e-reporting will replace paper filing are still unknown. As more information becomes available this page will be updated with our San Bernardino CUPA e-reporting plans as well as with resources that facilities may find helpful. We are here to work through the e-reporting requirements together as they are phased in from now until the January 1, 2013 statewide deadline.
The State will manage the California Environmental Reporting System, and the responsibility for the implementation currently falls with CalEPA. They have numerous fact sheets at: http://www.calepa.ca.gov/CUPA/EReporting/default.htm
All of the fact sheets from the CalEPA site may be helpful in understanding the whole e-reporting effort, but the following may be of specific interest to facilities:
Documents from the San Bernardino County CUPA:
New State Unified Program Electronic Reporting Surcharge
E-Reporting
Authorization
San Bernardino County E-Reporting Frequently Asked Questions
San Bernardino County CUPA situation:
San Bernardino County CUPA currently uses the Envision for Windows software from Decade Software for facility-related information tracking. We expect to complete a major software upgrade to EnvisionConnect within the 2009-10 fiscal year. This is part of our transition to e-reporting as it will be through the EnvisionConnect software that data will be exchanged with the California Environmental Reporting System (CERS). San Bernardino County CUPA actively participates in the Statewide Electronic Reporting Work Group coordinated by CalEPA. We are a comparatively large CUPA and have a diverse clientele as far as our currently regulated ~7000 facilities. We have many sites with just one regulated chemical, one regulatory program, or just one owner/operator and no employees. We have many other sites with hundreds of regulated chemicals, many complex regulatory programs, and hundreds of employees. There are single site proprietors, chain operations, franchises, large corporations, government, non-profit, and sites that in one contiguous property span multiple counties. Electronic reporting challenges will look different to these different clients and we are committed to the success and compliance of each regulated facility.
The other difference within our customer base is the continuum of excitement to dread about the requirement to change from paper filing to electronic reporting:
For you eager early-adopters who want to get started as soon as possible:
- Make sure to have an accurate email address on the Environmental Contact for your facility in your Business Emergency/Contingency Plan.
- Gather background information from the CalEPA web page at http://www.calepa.ca.gov/CUPA/EReporting/default.htm.
- Register as a business on CERS at https://cers.calepa.ca.gov/.
- After registering, search on the CERS site for your regulated facility in San Bernardino County & request approval for access. (All our permitted facilities have been uploaded to CERS so if you don't find your facility, please contact us at
efile@sbcfire.org rather than create a new duplicate facility.)
- Mail a physically signed E-Reporting Authorization Form to the San Bernardino County CUPA using the email address registered on CERS.
- Begin entering your chemical inventories and other required CUPA forms online.
- Report any problems to the CERS Administrator.
- To meet periodic filing deadlines, print out and sign the resulting documents and mail them to us until such time as we notify you that we are able to receive data directly from CERS. Keep a photocopy on site.
For those who want to keep informed and make a secure planned entry into this:
- Make sure to have an accurate email address on the Environmental Contact for your facility so we can send you notices of significant developments.
- Check both our web page,
www.sbcfire.org/hazmat/efile.asp and the CalEPA web page at
http://www.calepa.ca.gov/CUPA/EReporting/default.htm for the most recent developments.
- Then when you want to begin to use CERS, contact us at
efile@sbcfire.org or call your inspector at (909) 386-8401 so we can work with you.
For those who prefer paper filing or do not have computer access:
We will have some training opportunities, more online help, and other tools. We need to survey our customers and prioritize the needs in our jurisdiction but we may be able to provide some direct assistance. You will need Internet and email access in order to file electronically. However, we advise you to wait until things get more settled, closer to 2012. Let those eager early-adopters identify the issues with the system and give the State and the local agencies time to get a more extensive support framework in place.
Contact your inspector at (909) 386-8401 or email us at
efile@sbcfire.org if you have any questions.
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