1 REGNET: An Infrastructure for Regulatory Information Management and Compliance Assistance Kincho H. Law Prof., Civil and Env. Engr. Jim Leckie Prof., Civil and Env. Engr. Barton Thompson Prof., School of Law Gio Wiederhold Prof., Computer Science Shawn Kerrigan Bill Labiosa Gloria Lau Haoyi Wang Jie Wang Civil and Env. Engr. Pooja Trivedi Li Zhang Liang Zhou (former students) Computer Science Charles Heenan Researcher, Law Student Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305

2 Motivation The complexity, diversity, and volume of federal and state regulations: Require considerable expertise to understand Increase the risk of companies failing to comply with environmental regulations Hinder public understanding of the government How would IT help to make “applicable” regulations easily accessible? to assist parties involved in regulation compliance?

3 Vision Current state of compliance checking: Paper-based process Locating and interpreting the relevant regulations is complex, even with the help of supplementary information Vision for future: Up-to-date regulations and compliance-checking assistance procedures available online Improved regulation and compliance-requirement transparency through clear presentation and linking Research Goal Developing information management frameworks that can facilitate public access to regulations and facilitate the compliance process.

4 Document Repository and RAS Documents organized according to hierarchical structures Includes a variety of documents – guidelines, background information, etc. Developed a logic-based compliance assistance methodology and prototype Integrates compliance assistance with the document repository

5 Document Repository

6 Classification Structures (EPA List of Extremely Hazardous Substances)

7 Classification Structures

8

9 Displaying Context using Semio

10 Research Questions How can we make the information and rules more accessible? How can we represent the information and rules in environmental regulations in a computer interpretable format? How can we structure this information to assist with regulation compliance checking?

11 General Approach Information Integration Formalization of meaning and relationships Regulation-centric Tie the information to the appropriate portion of the regulation

12 HTML to XML Regulation Parsing XML Structured Document

13 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; …. Subsection (a) Subsection (b) Subsection (c) 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 are subject to regulation under parts 264 or 265 of this chapter. (a) Surface impoundment prohibition. Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units … Example:

14 Regulation Parsing § 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. 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.

15 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 Add Definitions

16 What is a “Concept”? Examples: –emission requirement –leaked hazardous substance –disposal of solvents –principal hazardous constituent Why are they useful? –identify similar regulations even when they do not reference each other –provide a “context” for the regulation provision

17 Regnet Taxonomy

18 Tagging with Concepts 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.

19 Parsing References 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; (ii) Utility boilers used to produce electric power, steam, heated or cooled air, or other gases or fluids for sale; or (iii) Used oil-fired space heaters provided that the burner meets the provisions of § (3) Hazardous waste incinerators subject to regulation under subpart O of parts 264 or 265 of this chapter. § Used Oil Specification. …..

20 (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

21 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:

22 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

23 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

24 RAS Main Page

25 Compliance Assistance Session

26 Results

27 Integration with Document Repository

28 Integration with Document Repository

29 Results

30 Broader Perspective

31 Summary Can decompose 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

32 Thank You! Questions?