Agency to allow relaxed virus guidance

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’ environmental regulators will allow companies to operate under relaxed coronavirus enforcement guidance, even as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency moves to formally end its version of the relaxed policy next month.

In a July 2 memorandum, Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment Secretary Becky Keogh said the EPA’s upcoming termination of its policy, but said her department’s pandemic guidance “remains in effect while we monitor conditions in Arkansas and act according to what is best for Arkansas.”

Both state and federal policies allow for enforcement discretion if regulated entities cannot meet environmental health and safety requirements, as long as their noncompliance is directly related to the coronavirus outbreak.

The EPA will terminate its guidance at the end of August, the agency announced late last month.

Keogh said last week the EPA has left the door open to enforcement on a case-by-case basis before or after the agency’s enforcement guidance is officially terminated.

“That is actually the approach Arkansas took in setting up our enforcement discretion” from the start, Keogh said.

She added Arkansas regulators feel the case-by-case enforcement discretion “has actually served us well to demonstrate that most of our regulated entities have been very creative and innovative, and found ways to remain in compliance and demonstrate all their compliance.”