The goal of the Flexible Track Project was to design and implement on a pilot basis an optional regulatory track for batch chemical processors that exhibited strong records of environmental compliance and a commitment to improved performance. The premise is that different levels of environmental performance warrant varied levels of regulatory oversight. Many current requirements are based on the assumption that companies will evade their regulatory responsibilities when possible. The result is high transaction costs (such as reporting and frequent inspections) and limits on flexibility that lead to frequent permitting modifications or constraints on a firm's ability to implement cost-effective process or materials changes.

     The flexible track is designed to encourage companies to achieve a high level of compliance that qualifies them for the program and to enable them, once they are in, to continually improve their performance. It offers benefits to the companies in the form of lower transaction costs, the opportunity to implement eco-efficient strategies, and better relations with communities and regulators. The public would benefit through improved environmental performance from batch processors, better information about facility operations, and more responsiveness to community concerns. For regulators, the program allows them to expend fewer resources overseeing high-performing facilities and to focus their oversight on facilities with problems in their performance.

     NJ DEP and EPA have developed this project with the cooperation of a stakeholder panel that included representatives of batch processing facilities, environmental and community organizations, trade associations, sewage treatment works, and others. The proposed framework for the flexible track is detailed in the report "Framework for a Flexible Track Program."

     The Pilot Team developed a framework for a Flexible Track Program that consists of two levels: an initial point of entry, the Silver Track, for facilities with a sustained pattern of compliance and an internal system to measure and maintain their environmental performance; and the Gold Track, for outstanding performers that are committed to exceeding environmental requirements or to maintaining their high level of performance and implementing one or more activities designed to further the goal of environmental protection, such as mentoring, product stewardship, or continuous improvement in performance.

     This framework is intended to provide incentives for facilities to improve their environmental performance. The benefits of participating in the Flexible Track Program encourage companies to improve their compliance to a level that qualifies for entry into either the Silver or Gold Tracks. The Pilot Team recognized the importance of balancing these incentives with assurances that facilities participating in the Flexible Track Program will actually improve their environmental performance, and provide an accounting of that performance.

     The Pilot Team published this Flexible Track framework in May, 1997 and then vetted it with a number of organizations, including EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, EPA program offices, trade associations and other industry stakeholders, a multiple-facility community advisory panel, the NJ DEP Commissioner and Management Team, and the Green and Gold Task Force.¹  Each of these groups provided positive feedback on the program.

     Due to the synergy between the goals of the Flexible Track Pilot and NJ DEP's Strategic Plan, the Pilot Team and NJ DEP agreed that the Department would adopt the framework of the program and take on the primary responsibility for implementing it, while conitnuing to obtain support and input from the Pilot Team. Shortly after this shift, NJ DEP and the Pilot Team agreed that the Silver Track would be broken out into two levels in order to expedite the start of the program. Silver Track I would offer a variety of incentives to facilities, including public recognition of their commitment to improved environmental performance and several types of operational flexibility that could be offered within the context of current regulations. Silver Track II would offer additional types of flexibility, most notably exempting companies from the need to obtain pre-construction air permits if the equipment in question meets de minimus emission threshold levels. Thus, Silver Track I can be implemented quickly and is open to the entire regulated community, both public and private entities; while Silver Track II requires additional time to develop and will be tested with a small group of volunteer facilities as a pilot program.

     NJ DEP completed its guidance for the Silver Track , with input from the Pilot Team, in the Summer of 1999 and began accepting applications in September 1999. NJ DEP is currently working with the Pilot Team and additional Stakeholders to develop the plans to test Silver Track II in Spring 2000.

     NJ DEP plans to develop the Gold Track in several phases. The first involves developing the eligibility criteria and incentives for facilities to participate in the program with the input of a stakeholder group. NJ DEP will then embark on a rule writing process while simultaneously conducting a pilot test of the program with a small number of facilities. The Department is also working with EPA in developing a state-wide XL project for implementing the Gold Track.

¹ The Green and Gold Task Force is a group of leaders from industry and environmental groups that the NJ DEP has convened to serve as a sounding board for its ideas and to help ensure balanced input for department proposals. Return

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Last Revision: March 13, 2000
http://www.epa.gov/emergingstrategies/njcip/ft.htm