David Hindin/DC/USEPA/US
06/20/2006 04:22 PM To
Subject
ICIS 2.0 To Go Live on Friday, June 23, 2006
To: ICIS User Community and Interested Others:
On Friday, June 23, 2006, EPA will complete a major milestone in its project to
modernize the Permit Compliance System (PCS): the Integrated Compliance
Information System (ICIS) 2.0 will go live. This release of ICIS has two
components: the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), and
Federal Enforcement and Compliance (FE&C). The two components of ICIS 2.0 are
called: ICIS-NPDES (aka PCS Modernization) and ICIS-FE&C. Friday, June 23,
will be the first day of operation for both components of ICIS 2.0.
IMPACT ON PCS STATES THAT ARE MOVING TO ICIS.
Thirteen States will now begin to use ICIS-NPDES instead of PCS: Alaska,
District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Virgin Islands, and Utah.
These states have been in PCS read-only access since June 8 and will continue
as read-only in PCS. This means that any NPDES permitting and enforcement
information that a state or EPA would enter into PCS for activities in these 13
states will now go into ICIS-NPDES.
IMPACT ON EPA FEDERAL ENFORCEMENT AND COMPLIANCE USERS OF ICIS PHASE I.
All Federal Enforcement and Compliance information will now be entered into
ICIS-FE&C. ICIS Phase I access has been read-only since June 1, and beginning
June 23 ICIS-FE&C will be available for data entry and reporting.
HOW TO LOG ON TO ICIS 2.0.
Effective June 23, 2006, you log on to ICIS by going to this website,
https://icis.epa.gov/icis , and providing your user id and password.
Information on how to find your user id and password is enclosed in the
attached PDF file. Note that you will need to change your password on your
first log in to ICIS 2.0.
USER SUPPORT.
If you have a question about how to use ICIS 2.0, you may contact the User
Support Hotline at 202-564-7756. The Hotline will be staffed 8.00am to 5:30pm
Eastern Time, Monday to Friday. You can leave a voice mail message after
hours. The User Support Email is : . We will have a comprehensive
ICIS User Guide. The initial posting of the User Guide will be on Webworks:
www.webworks.bah.com. More information on user support, and how to access the
User Guide from Webworks and eventually ICIS itself is contained in the
attached PDF file.
WHAT TO EXPECT.
While ICIS-NPDES was designed and tested by our states and Regions, and
considerable on-site training and web demonstrations have been given, it is
still a very different system from PCS and will take some time to get used
to. ICIS-FE&C, on the other hand, has the same capability of ICIS Phase I
with the addition of a new look and feel. Consistent with releases of any new,
complex national information system, we anticipate some bumps in the road as
users get familiar with the new system and we continue to fix problems. We
will actively address these issues as they occur.
ADDITIONAL ICIS INFORMATION.
Many of you probably have questions on what impact the new system will have
upon the June Quarterly Non Compliance Report (QNCR), Federal End of Year
Reporting, and OTIS/ECHO data, for example. We are developing a Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQs) document for distribution next week to answer these
questions. To ensure your question is addressed, please send your ICIS
questions to Rochele Kadish (). We will work to answer
all questions and keep the FAQ document updated in a timely fashion.
THE FUTURE.
We are now preparing to migrate another 16 states, tribes and territories from
PCS to ICIS-NPDES. These states and territories will go live in ICIS-NPDES on
August 21, 2006. These states and territories are: Connecticut, Georgia,
Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Saint Regis Tribe,
Navajo Nation, Guam, American Samoa, Canal Zone, Mariana Islands, Gulf of
Mexico, Atlantic Offshore and Trust territories. Training for these states
and territories starts soon. Questions about this training should be directed
to Rochele Kadish at 202-564-3106, or .
We are continuing with PCS Modernization. Our plans for moving the remaining
NPDES states from PCS to ICIS will be announced in September 2006.
The development of ICIS 2.0, PCS Modernization, has been a work in progress for
several years. The June 23, 2006 release of modernized PCS would not have
been possible without extensive support from our Regional and State users, as
well as many others, including our National Computer Center. We thank you for
all your help. I hope we can count on your support and partnership as we move
forward using ICIS.
If you have questions about ICIS, please contact me at 202-564-1300, or Betsy
Smidinger, Deputy Division Director, at 202-564-4017. If you have a question
that you think would be helpful to address in our upcoming FAQ document, please
email the question to Rochele Kadish at .
David A. Hindin, Director
Enforcement Targeting and Data Division
Office of Compliance
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
202-564-1300.
Distribution Note:
We have addressed this email to a broad range of staff and managers in EPA and
the States who are likely to have some involvement/ interest with the PCS or
the existing ICIS 1.0 (aka federal Phase I), plus those who have been involved
with PCS Modernization (ICIS-NPDES). We have included everyone as a "bcc" in
this mass mailing to avoid unintended reply all messages that clutter up
mailboxes. Please forward this to interested staff and mangers in your office
as appropriate. These are the lists we used to address this email:
State NPDES program managers; Regional Water Division managers; State EPA
ICIS/PCS Expanded Steering Committee; State EPA PCS Coordinators; Regional
ICIS System Coordinators; ICIS Production Operations Board (POB); Data
Migration Workgroup; ICIS User Acceptance Testers; EPA Regional Enforcement
Coordinators; EPA's National Computer Center (NCC) managers; our
contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton management; OECA senior management, and
Office of Compliance staff.