Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Congress Examines Environmental Bill

State Representative Percy Malone's environmental audit bill, passed in the 1995 General Assembly, received national recognition recently.

In fact, Malone was invited to Washington, D.C. to explain the law and discuss a similar measure on the federal level.

The law was supported in Arkansas by environmental groups, the Arkansas Department of Pollution Control and Ecology, along with a coalition of business and industry leaders.

Malone said the law allows business and industry to audit itself and clean up any problems which may relate to the environment. It can also document its effort with no danger of being penalized by the PC&E. Prior to this bill being passed into law, any company which policed itself on environmental issues and documented its findings could have those findings used against it and be fined.

"This provides a good working relationship between business and the government," Malone said, "to protect the environment.

"Before the bill, if a company documented its problems it could be used against them."

There are currently 14 states with similar legislature on their books, with measures of a like nature being introduced in 26 more.

"My trip to Washington was for two things," he said, "to lobby Congress to get word to the Environmental Protection Agency to work with states on this legislation and to encourage the use of these audits and not be disruptive of state's rights. The other part was to urge Congress to support legislation for a federal environmental audit."

He said such a procedure would be much like those in existence in those 14 states which have environmental audits at this time.

"By having federal legislation, we can do two things," he said. "We can set the tone for EPA guidelines and give uniformity to regulations.

"Companies doing audit documentation and making notifications is what we want."

Malone informed the members of Congress those people who currently break the law with complete disregard will continue to do so. However, companies sensitive to environmental needs won't be penalized by auditing themselves, and this will give them incentive to do the audits. It also allows other companies to get their situations corrected with no penalties.

Bills similar to Arkansas' new law are expected to be introduced in both the House and Senate. Malone said this is a bipartisan measure, as both parties have shown support for the initial bills.