New Release of ICIS, Version 4.2 was Deployed

• ICIS Release v4.2 Announcement_v2.docx

 

ICIS FE&C and ICIS-NPDES Contacts and Coordinators:

Today, a new release of ICIS, Version 4.2, was deployed into ICIS production. This release includes the implementation of 6 user requested enhancements and 26 problem corrections reported by the ICIS user community.

 

Highlights of this release include implementation of a new Environmental Justice (EJ) Indicator for Enforcement Actions, enhancements to support the Clean Water Action Plan, recommendations from the ICIS QNCR Workgroup, modification of several reports and reporting objects in support of FE&C End-of –Year Reporting, and the addition of Case Summary confirmation functionality to the Final Order Screen.

 

Requirements for Changes to the ICIS Enforcement Module for EJ 

In order to accommodate the use of EJSEAT scores in ICIS and allow for identification and counting of formal federal enforcement actions that consider EJ concerns, changes were made to the formal ICIS enforcement module. These changes affect only the formal enforcement module and replace the existing EJ data field.

To facilitate this change, the draft EJ guidance titled "New Requirements for Reviewing EPA Enforcement Cases for Potential Environmental Justice Concerns and Reporting Findings to the ICIS Data System" is currently available for review and comment with EPA Regions and HQs. The guidance establishes the requirement that EPA report in ICIS on its EJ assessments of its cases using these new data fields, and explains how to use them. Comments are due by COB Wednesday, October 5 and can be sent directly to palmer.daniel@epa.gov.

For more information about the EJ ICIS changes or the draft guidance contact Dan Palmer at palmer.daniel@epa.gov.

ICIS Enhancements to Support the Clean Water Action Plan (CWAP)

In this release, ICIS will fix two known, non-controversial problems with how self-reported effluent monitoring information is processed by EPA national systems and then publicly displayed. By removing perpetual reporting violations and distinguishing failure to report from EPA/state data entry gaps, we will improve public transparency and allow states and regions to more efficiently focus on more important violations. To address these, ICIS is implementing the following:

 

1. an automatic resolution of DMR Non-Receipt violations over two years old and
2. the addition of two new RNC Status Codes (“U” for Unknown and “V” for Non-RNC Violations)

 

For more information about the CWAP changes contact Catherine Bius at bius.catherine@epa.gov or Steve Rubin at rubin.steven@epa.gov.

We are excited about these enhancements and the new capabilities that they bring to ICIS and our user community. If you have questions regarding this release, please contact ICIS Customer Support at ICIS@epa.gov or by phone on 202/564-7756. An expanded list highlighting just some of the new functionality is included below.

Thanks,

John M. Dombrowski, P.E.

Director, Enforcement Targeting and Data Division

OECA/OC

 

Business Objects Reports

• o   Federal Enforcement Conclusions and NODs
  • § 
  • o   Direct and Preventative Environmental Benefits
    • § 
  • o   CWA National Priority Environmental Benefits
    • § 
  • o   ICDS reports
    • § 
  • o   Federal Enforcement Initiations
    • § 
  • o   New Energy Extraction Environmental Benefits

Business Objects Universe

•  
  • Enforcement Action Universe
    • Updated to support reports for Case Summary Confirmation
    • Updated to support reports for expanded Environmental Justice fields.
    • Updated logic to support reports for the Primary Law Category object.
  • Voluntary Disclosure Universe
    • Corrected an issue with the Primary Law and Law Section objects.
    • Corrected an issue in ad hoc reports that resulted in erroneous data being retrieved.
  • ICIS-NPDES Ad Hoc Universe
    • Updated to support reports for Case Summary Confirmation.
    • Updated to support reports for expanded Environmental Justice fields.
  • ICIS System Administration Universe
    • Added new reference tables for Case Summary Confirmation and expanded Environmental Justice fields.
    • Added the Environmental Justice score table.
  • QNCR Reports
    • Modified to not display of facilities where the overall RNC Status codes are either “U” (Unknown) or “V” (Non-RNC Violations).
      
      

DMRs/Background Processing

•  
  • DMR Non-Receipt Violations
    • Added a new process to administratively resolve perpetual violations (i.e., non-receipt RNC unresolved violations) that are over two years old.
    • Updated the Edit functionality to ensure that the new automatic RNC Resolution code “0” can be manually overwritten.
  • RNC
    • Added two new RNC Status codes of “U” (Unknown) and “V” (Non-RNC Violations) to support the Clean Water Action Plan (CWAP).
  • DMR Search Screen
    • Changed the search list display default from 24 to 96.
      
      

Compliance Monitoring

•  
  • Corrected a problem where the Region Code failed to update when the State Code is edited for State Compliance Monitoring activities.
  • Fixed some CAFO special regulation data validation errors.
    
    

Enforcement Actions

•  
  • Corrected the Generic System Dump Error Message when saving Enforcement Actions with Linked Final Order DMR Violations.
  • Expanded the Environmental Justice cross media functionality and fields.
  • Updated the Final Order Screens to populate the Enforcement Action Case Summary.
    
    

Facility Search Function

•  
  • Fixed the link so that pressing Enter will direct users to the next screen instead of the previous screen.

Permit

•  
  • Corrected the sort order display for Permit Components.
  • For Unpermitted Facilities, corrected a NPDES ID alphanumeric validation issue where invalid characters were incorrectly being accepted.
  • Updated Manage RNC History for the new RNC Status codes of “U” and “V”.
  • Updated Manage Major/Minor Status to support the requirement that RNC Status code “U” is only applicable to minor permits.