Environmental Regulation Tools REGNET Shawn Kerrigan William A. and Martha Campbell SGF Fellowship Kincho Law, James Leckie, Gio Wiederhold, Barton Thompson, Charles Heenan, Liang Zhou SGF Research Symposium April 24, 2002

Motivation The complexity, diversity, and volume of federal and state regulations are: detrimental to business increase the risk of companies failing to comply with environmental regulations hinder public understanding of the government

Background Current state of compliance checking: Paper-based process Locating and interpreting the relevant regulations is complex, even with the help of supplementary information Small companies have difficulty conducting compliance checks due to lack of resources and knowledge Vision for future: Up-to-date regulations and compliance-checking assistance procedures available online Improved regulation and compliance requirement transparency though clear presentation and linking

Translate To Hierarchical Structure PART 279—Standards For The Management Of Used Oil Subpart B – Applicability … § Prohibitions. (a) Surface impoundment prohibition. Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units are subject to regulation under parts 264 or 265 of this chapter. (b) Use as a dust suppressant. The use of used oil as a dust suppressant is prohibited, except when such activity takes place in one of the states listed in § (c). (c) Burning in particular units. Off-specification used oil fuel may be burned for energy recovery in only the following devices: (1) Industrial furnaces identified in § of this chapter; (2) Boilers, as defined in § of this chapter, that are identified as follows: (i) Industrial boilers located on the site of a facility engaged in a manufacturing process where substances are transformed into new products, including the component parts of products, by mechanical or chemical processes; …. § Used Oil Specification. ….. Subsection (a) Subsection (b) Subsection (c) Subsection (d) 40 CFR 279 Subpart ASubpart BSubpart I Section Section Section … … …… contains (a) Surface impoundment prohibition. Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units … Example:

Plain Text Single Column Get Structure Info Webster Dictionary Parse According to Structure Parse Table of Contents Regulation Parser Original Regulations pdf’s other formats Regulations in XML format Tagged by basic document structure XML Processing of Regulations

Adding Meta-Data to Regulations Regulation tagged with meta-data Add Legal Interpretation Reference Extraction Add Logical Interpretation Add Concepts Original XML document Document Program

(a) Surface impoundment prohibition. Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units are subject to regulation under parts 264 or 265 of this chapter. Before: (a) Surface impoundment prohibition. Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units are subject to regulation under parts 264 or 265 of this chapter. After: Parsing References Original XML document XML with Reference List Reference Extraction

Regulation Assistance System (RAS) Provides a unifying web interface for the regulation documents and meta-data Demonstrates the usefulness of XML structured regulation documents with meta- data Works with a logic-based compliance- checking assistance system to demonstrate web-based regulation services

XML-based Regulations Additional Input Files Interactive User Input Regulation Compliance Decision Logic input fileFound proof / no proof found RASweb Provides web interface Displays regulation information RCCsession Implements compliance checking procedure User inputResults / requested information RAS System Structure * Otter is an automated- deduction program developed by William McCune at Argonne National Laboratory Otter * Attempts to find proof by contradiction from input file

Otter Attempts to find proof by contradiction from input file RCCsession – Otter Interaction FOPC Input File Proof Attempt Output File RCCsession Implements compliance checking procedure Develop input file with appropriate logic sentences Read proof attempt output and take appropriate action

XML Embedded Logic all _o (usedOil(_o) -> -(dustSuppressant(_o))). Rule logic represents the rules specified by the regulation: 40.CFR b – Use as a dust suppressant: “The use of used oil as a dust suppressant is prohibited…” Option elements define the user interface: Is the used-oil used as a dust suppressant? (usedOil(oil1) & dust_suppressant(oil1)). (usedOil(oil1) & (-(dust_suppressant(oil1))). Control statements specify processing instructions for compliance-checking:

Summary Decomposing regulations into a structured XML document Adding rich meta-data about regulations enables more sophisticated interaction with the documents Automated assistance with environmental compliance-checking may be possible