[CPEO-MEF] Army Develops Risk Based Environmental Audits

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
Army Develops Risk Based Environmental Audits
July 7, 2003

WASHINGTON, DC, (ENS) - U.S. Army installations at greatest risk of
environmental enforcement actions or where environmental concerns could
most adversely affect operations will receive more frequent evaluations
under a recent change to the Army's Environmental Performance Assessment
System (EPAS).

Previously, Defense Department policy required an installation and all
its environmental media to be audited every three years.

In fiscal 2003, the Army began prioritizing its installations within the
continental United States based on relative risk as reflected by a mix
of performance, mission criticality and sustainability challenges.

To rank installations, the U.S. Army Environmental Center developed the
Army EPAS Risk Model (AERM) in 2002. This system accesses data from Army
databases to generate a risk ordered list.

"AERM allows us to rationalize where to go and what to look at. The end
result is a better, more cost effective use of Army environmental audit
resources," Matt Andrews, Army EPAS team leader told Andrew Caraker
writing for the U.S. Army Environmental Center.

The change is part of the EPAS program's response to impending Armywide
implementation of environmental management systems.

The EPAS program is being redesigned to focus on installation
environmental management performance and end results, rather than
compliance checklists.

This article can be viewed at:
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2003/2003-07-07-09.asp#anchor1

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