The Tennessee Department of Environmental and Conservation (“TDEC”) has recently formalized its policy encouraging self-policing and voluntary correction of environmental violations. It became policy in Tennessee on November 17, 2011 when signed by TDEC Commissioner Robert J. Martineau. The Tennessee policy is based upon the U.S. EPA’s Self-Reporting Policy of 1995 and revision in 2000.

The purpose of the policy is to encourage companies and individuals (referred to in the policy as “regulated entities”) to voluntarily discover their own violations of state environmental requirements, to disclose those violations to TDEC, and to take action to correct the violations and get back into compliance. The incentives for voluntarily discovering, reporting, and correcting one’s own violations are threefold. First, if a regulated entity has fully complied with the conditions of the policy, TDEC will not seek non-contingent civil penalties for the violation (unless TDEC determines that the entity made a significant economic gain because of the violation). Second, TDEC will not recommend that criminal charges be brought against an entity that has complied with the policy. And third, TDEC will not routinely request or use an environmental audit report; therefore, regulated entities should not forego conducting self-audits out of fear of having to furnish copies to TDEC in the event of a routine inspection.

There are nine basic conditions that a regulated entity must satisfy to comply with the policy...

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