Market for Audits of Commercial
Hazardous Waste Facilities to See Major Changes

80% or Greater Cost Reduction Possible for On-Site Audits Available to
Hazardous Waste Generators

Contacts: Cary Perket Ph: 858/488-4760/
EI Don Hensch/EAS Ph: 405/715-2523

February 20, 2001 — For Immediate Release

Minneapolis, Minnesota — On-site inspection audits have been — and continue to be — a routine part of both commercial hazardous waste facility section and on-going monitoring of its compliance performance. Such audits, despite being necessary, are time consuming and expensive. Over the years, customers of commercial hazardous waste facilities have attempted numerous approaches to reduce their independent audit costs, including reducing the scope of the audits and cost sharing.

The new Environmental Audit Services (EAS)/ Environmental Information Ltd. (EI) venture is targeted directly at customers who acquire replicated audits of commercial hazardous waste facilities as well as those that could not afford them in the past. The EAS/EI market research found that hazardous waste generators were:

  1. frequently paying well in excess of $3500 per facility to individually have an audit conducted,
  2. desiring to have the quality of audits improved and/or maintained despite budgeting pressures,
  3. dissatisfied with what they perceive as a lack of a structured audit schedule from other cooperative efforts,
  4. wanting to avoid situations that require the purchase of multiple audits,
  5. unhappy with annual membership dues/fees charged by cooperative efforts, and
  6. seeking to avoid complications of belonging to a consortium/organization because of legal considerations.

In addition, the customers very much desire to visit the audit site, but can not cost justify having both an independent consultant and themselves visit.

"Our analysis of this market shows that both the customer and the facility would prefer to have the customer staff actually visit the facility," says EI president Cary Perket. "This preference can not always be realized because the customer staff does not have the time to perform a complete documentation of a comprehensive facility audit. By helping the customers share costs, we are helping to make it affordable for the facility customer to have a comprehensive, independent third-party audit, as well as allowing staff members to visit the facility, if desired."

EAS/EI are teaming to make it possible for hazardous waste generators to purchase comprehensive audits for as low as $695.00 per audit at regularly scheduled TSD facilities. EAS/EI has announced a list approximatelt 65 hazardous waste facilities that will be audited on a three year cycle. The scheduled facilities include almost all operational commercial hazardous waste BIFs, incinerators, landfills, and a number of other major hazardous waste treatment facilities in Canada and the United States. Further details of the new program are available at www.envirobiz.com/EAS.

EAS President Don Hensch states, "The customer is also getting the benefit that our audits are conducted by senior professionals who have had previous experience working at these facilities and as regulatory officials." Hensch himself is the former head of the State of Oklahoma hazardous waste program and has over 10 years experience of working at a commercial hazardous waste firm.

The EAS and EI joint effort is different because it does not require any membership fees or minimum purchases, and fees for scheduled facilities are pre-established. The EAS/EI will also help customers share costs at smaller facilities – typically specialty treatment facilities – that are not currently scheduled for an audit. "We hope over time to add additional facilities to the regular audit schedule," says EAS’s Hensch. "But this will need to be market driven by the expression of interests from customers of those facilities."

"This effort is consistent with continuing business trends to streamline procurement," adds EI’s Perket. "The inventory of audits that we will be creating will also eliminate the potential delay that often takes place when there is a need to have an audit performed before waste can be sent to a different commercial hazardous waste facility."

Perket believes that this effort will be particularly attractive to medium and small firms that use a small number of commercial hazardous waste treatment and disposal facilities. Many of these firms find it too expensive to join other collaborative efforts because of annual dues, membership fees, and other hidden costs. Perket notes however, "Our first customers who purchase this service were Fortune 100 companies, so we expect this program to have wide spread appeal."

Further information about the EAS/EI program can be accessed on the Internet at http://www.envirobiz.com/EAS. Environmental Audit Services, based in Edmond, Oklahoma, specializes in the auditing of commercial hazardous waste facilities. Environmental Information Limited is widely known service to assist manufacturers with both selecting waste management options through the EI Environmental Services Database and providing insight into hazardous waste management market conditions with the EI Digest: Hazardous Waste Marketplace. For further information on any of these services, call EI at 952/831-2473.

 

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