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 was effective July 1, 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.

At this time we are advising facilities to wait until CERS2 is available before entering their facility information into CERS. CERS2 is anticipated to be released in early January 2012. It will employ a redesigned user interface that is easier to use and will have more help screens available. Listed below are some dates to keep in mind as we work toward the ability to accept submissions electronically:

November 19, 2011	Date after which new users will no longer be granted access to CERS. Anyone wishing to gain initial access or establish a facility in CERS after this time must wait until CERS2 is released.
December 10, 2011	Date when CERS will be closed to all users so that any data that had been entered into CERS can be migrated to CERS2. There will be no access to CERS after this time until CERS2 is released.
December 20, 2011	CERS2 training portal  launched. Users can access this site to gain familiarity with CERS2 during the time before the production site for CERS2 is available.
January 8, 2012	The anticipated date for the production version of CERS2 to be released.
Late 1st quarter 2012	CERS2 EDT (Electronic Data Transfer) services available for production use. After the state system comes on-line our local software must be modified so that the two systems can exchange data. It is only after these two systems have established communication that we will be able to accept submissions electronically.
~June 2012	Projected date when San Bernardino County CUPA may be able to accept electronic submissions. However, if you desire you may still submit paper forms until the state mandated deadline of January 1, 2013.
January 1, 2013	Date after which all submissions must be made electronically.

The State will manage the California Environmental Reporting System (CERS), and the responsibility for the implementation currently falls with Cal/EPA. 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:

• Assembly Bill (AB) 2286 (Feuer, PDF)
• Scope of Electronic Reporting requirements (PDF)
• Electronic Reporting | Bulletin #3 (PDF)

Documents from the San Bernardino County CUPA:

New State Unified Program Electronic Reporting Surcharge
E-Reporting Authorization [MS Word Version]
San Bernardino County E-Reporting Frequently Asked Questions

San Bernardino County CUPA situation:

San Bernardino County CUPA recently completed a major software upgrade to EnvisionConnect. 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 CERS Regulator User Group coordinated by Cal/EPA. 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:

1. Make sure to have an accurate email address on the Environmental Contact for your facility in your Business Emergency/Contingency Plan.
2. Gather background information from the CalEPA web page at http://www.calepa.ca.gov/CUPA/EReporting/default.htm.
3. Register as a business on CERS at https://cers.calepa.ca.gov/.
4. After registering, search on the CERS site for your regulated facility in San Bernardino County and request approval for access. (We did a preliminary upload of all our permitted facilities to CERS, but CERS is unable to accept frequent updates due to staffing constraints at the State level. If you don't find your facility, please contact us at efile@sbcfire.org rather than create a new facility that will possibly be a duplicate.)
5. Mail a signed Electronic Reporting Authorization Form to the San Bernardino County CUPA so that we can authorize access on CERS for your facility’s initial lead business user. Be sure that the email address listed for the lead user on the form is the same as the address used to register on CERS.
6. Begin entering your chemical inventories and other required CUPA forms online. Please note that a major software upgrade to CERS2 is planned for early December 2011, There will be significant changes to the user interface, so we do not advise spending a great deal of time trying to become familiar with the current version of CERS.
7. Report any problems to efile.sbcfire.org or the CERS Administrator.
8. 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:

1. Make sure to have an accurate email address on the Environmental Contact for your facility so we can send you notices of significant developments.
2. Check both this web page and the Cal/EPA web page at http://www.calepa.ca.gov/CUPA/EReporting/default.htm for the most recent developments.
3. 3. 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, and certainly to wait until after CERS2 is launched in late fall 2011. 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.