The Combined Air Emissions Reporting (CAER) team, is working closely with the District of Columbia Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) to implement the next phase of the Combined Air Emissions Reporting System (CAERS) for the 2020 emissions inventory reporting cycle. The District of Columbia DOEE will be the second agency to begin using CAERS and will be able to provide a clear “before and after” snapshot of the onboarding process.
By implementing CAERS, the DOEE will reduce the staff time spent working with facilities to perform quality assurance checks on the submitted data. DOEE staff began testing CAERS in 2020, and facility reporters in the District of Columbia will be using the system to report their 2020 National Emissions Inventory. District of Columbia DOEE staff will be able to review and test the emissions data in CAERS. Once review is complete, CAERS will transmit the data to EPA’s Emissions Inventory System. Any toxics air emissions data reported to CAERS will also be available on the Toxics Release Inventory system, TRI-MEweb. DOEE is also using this effort to replace its paper based emissions reporting system for Title V sources with an improved digital workflow.
The CAER team is using this opportunity to improve CAERS based on lessons learned while building out CAERS with the pilot state, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The CAER team is also incorporating improvements to streamline the onboarding requirements in order to ease the registration process for future states, locals, and tribes. These advancements will aid in the onboarding of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, Montana Department of Environmental Quality, Pima County Department of Environmental Quality, and Omaha Air Quality Control Division.
