FOR IMMEDIATE NEWS RELEASE (March 21, 2019 – Hagåtña)

Senator Therese Terlaje’s Bill No. 27-35 (COR) that will require the timely publication of environmental violation notices and settlement agreements on the Guam Environmental Protection Agency’s website and require regular reporting of these notices and agreements to the GEPA Board of Directors was unanimously passed by the 35th Guam Legislature.

Bill 27-35 requires the online publication of Notices of Violations, Orders of Compliance, Notices of Defense, Voluntary Compliance Agreements, Settlement Agreements and Referrals to the Office of the Attorney General for Prosecution, allowing the public to follow the enforcement process from start to finish.

“By increasing agency transparency, we are prioritizing active participation by the public in their government and ultimately making agencies and their boards accountable for the level of enforcement that our entire community is depending on,” stated Senator Therese Terlaje.

Please see the transcript of Senator Therese Terlaje’s opening remarks and closing remarks during today’s session regarding Bill No. 27-35 (COR). 

Opening remarks on Bill No. 27-35 (COR)

“Bill No. 27-35 if passed into law will require the online publication of environmental violation enforcement documents and the timely reporting of these documents to the Guam EPA’s Board of Directors.  It will specifically mandate that all Notices of Violations, Orders of Compliance, Notices of Defense, Voluntary Compliance Agreements, Settlement Agreements, and Referrals to the Office of the Attorney General for prosecution will be published online no later than 15 days from service and those documents will also be reported to the Board of Directors at the next scheduled regular Board meeting. These documents are already public documents and they are subject to the FOIA requests.  The bill would also amend the EPA enabling statues to include all of their mandates so that the publication mandate would apply to all of EPA’s current enforcement duties including the Guam Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, the Toxic Substances Exposure Compensation Act, the Water And Wastewater Operators Mandatory Certification Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Guam Lead Ban Act, the Environmental Pollution Control Act, the Guam Oil Spill Responder Act, the  Choose to Reuse: Munga Ma Ayek I Plastek Act of 2018, the Underground Storage of Regulated Substances Act, the Above Storage of Regulated Substances Act. I would like to thank Guam EPA’s public information officer Nic Rupley for his testimony at the public hearing in support of the bill and the Administrator Leon Guerrero’s written testimony and feedback from Guam EPA and its legal counsel the during the drafting of this bill. I would also like to thank the co-sponsors Senator Sabina Perez and Senator Clynt Ridgell for their support and for the committee’s support in moving this forward. The bill is consistent with Guam EPA Board’s recently adopted policy that would put violations online. I wholeheartedly support EPA’s efforts towards transparency and open governance, and I ask that my colleagues do the same by increasing agency transparency especially in these enforcement agencies.  We are hoping to build the trust of the public and prioritize active participation by the public in protecting the environment and ultimately making agencies and their Boards accountable for the level of enforcement that our entire community is depending upon. Si Yu’os ma’åse’.”

Senator Joe San Agustin, Senator Amanda Shelton, Senator Kelly Marsh Taitano, and Vice Speaker Telena Nelson also provided remarks in support of the bill during session.

Closing remarks on Bill No. 27-35 (COR)

“I’d like to thank my colleagues for their really well-thought-out remarks on the bill.  It’s true madam Speaker that this bill was introduced because of events that had occurred in the past where the public was shocked to find out what the penalties were for violations. In looking more closely at how that could occur, we have to understand that we have given these agencies – they are regulatory agencies – we have given them great discretion, a great power, and also a great discretion to impose penalties also to enforce.  But along with that they have some discretion whether the violator responds quickly and suitably or efficiently and for different factors.  They give different penalties and so we’ve given them a range of penalties and so I agree with prior speakers that we want EPA to be harsh with their penalties because we want it to be a deterrent.  We also want the discretion to be less personally based versus actual system-based.  And I think, now, they do have factors that they evaluate in determining penalties and that’s the other reason why the Board is now going to get notice of all of these different actions promptly because the Board is there for oversight of an administrator and with changing administrators the Board should always be in the know and be able to act if they think the discretion was not to their liking.  I thank again my colleagues and the Committee Chair for their support of this bill.  Si Yu’os ma’åse’.”