The E-Enterprise Smart Mobile Tools for Field Inspectors (Smart Tools) Team kicked off a new workgroup this fall to expand the use of Smart Tools to National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) inspections.
The Smart Tools effort aims to improve the operation and management of environmental inspection programs by providing digital assistance to inspectors during each stage of the inspection process.
In the first phase of this initiative, states worked jointly with EPA to develop Smart Tools for Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) subtitle C inspections, inspections that are conducted by both regions and states. The Smart Tools software for RCRA was successfully tested in the field and is scheduled for national rollout in December 2019. Training to use these Smart Tools is ongoing in several states.
A Smart Tools NPDES inspection workgroup has been convened and development of the NPDES tools will run through spring 2020, followed by testing and planned completion by summer 2020. For more information, contact David Meredith of EPA or Beth Graves of ECOS. More information on the E-Enterprise Smart Tools Team is available here.