SAN JOSE, CA — Water utilities and treatment facilities at industrial plants are increasingly using Environmental Management System (EMS) programs to manage their environmental activities, according to market research firm Frost & Sullivan.
EMS programs provide organizations with a method of systematically managing their environmental activities by providing a structure that helps these organizations achieve environmental obligations and goals, the research firm said.
The EMS program is a perpetual sequence of planning, implementing, reviewing, and organizing environmental strategies at a given location. It was not designed specifically for municipalities, but originated for private industry. However, its use is being implemented by municipal and industrial facilities to go above and beyond the current calls for compliance in pollution prevention efforts.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sponsored the first EMS initiative in 1997 and is in the stages of conducting a second initiative, which began in the fall of 2000 and is expected to reach completion in 2002, Frost & Sullivan said. These initiatives have been implemented to help local governments test the applicability and beneficial features of employing EMS systems.
Working together with the Global Environment & Technology Foundation (GETF), the EPA has learned of several experiences thus far that have confirmed the compelling properties of utilizing the EMS system.
Included in the list of improvements at this middle point in the initiative are: waste diversions; water conservation; improved regulatory tracking; resource conservation; enhanced operational efficiency; and refined air quality control.
The National Biosolids Partnership (NBP), an association established by the EPA, the Water Environment Federation (WEF), and the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA), has also started to advertise the EMS approach to help the wastewater treatment industries improve their processes.
This method is anticipated to help wastewater treatment utilities, contractors, and other biosolids-related managers to address each aspect of the process while addressing issues such as odor and noise that are typically considering nuisances to the local community. This initiative is also a tool that public utilities are expected to use to remain competitive as privatization becomes more and more common through the next several years.
This is because an EMS system will allow these utilities to effectively streamline every aspect of business in a Total Quality Management (TQM) effort to be the most efficient and the most profitable.
So what does this really mean for these utilities? Well, the EMS system is an excellent plan, but the effort to implement it is almost solely accomplished by the employees of the various locales, according to Frost & Sullivan.
The two most significant deterrents to the perfect implementation of an EMS system, the research firm said, are the time requirements to properly and thoroughly entertain every issue faced by the wastewater treatment plant or industrial facility or biosolids management plant. Many times, employees are asked to aid in the creation of this system as an addendum to daily duties, and the time-consuming factor neglectfully remains silent.
Another factor is the funding needed to implement changes once they are identified during the structuring of the EMS program. For municipalities, funding is often not available, especially not in the time hoped for, the firm said.
Frost & Sullivan said the pros outweigh the cons of implementing the EMS system for municipalities and industrial facilities, and the cons are mostly temporary. It is anticipated that the utilization of these systems will not be widespread for at least another three years or more.
This time period is only an estimation, which could be lengthened or shortened based on the EPA's recommendations following the results of the initiative, which ends in 2002. Since the system is a voluntary program at this time, it will remain a decision of the end-user to go above and beyond the compliance measures of today in search of excellence for tomorrow.
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