'Regulatory Wizard' Now Available for Industry Air Permits; New Features Strengthen Productivity Tools for Air Compliance.

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 27, 1998--Process Data Control Corporation, a leading provider of environmental compliance software, announces the successful completion of a major R&D project on behalf of the 26-member Integrated Environmental Management industry consortium.

The project resulted in a groundbreaking approach to computer software that determines which governmental rules apply to industrial operations based on equipment information, such as size and construction date. Nicknamed the 'Regulatory Wizard,' the new system uses an extensive regulations database that was developed jointly by the industry consortium to determine applicable rules and regulations for many types of industries. The 'Regulatory Wizard' will help many companies that are trying to streamline their paperwork for new federal air operating permits.

"Governmental rules for plant equipment are well documented in decision charts and other materials distributed by the regulatory agencies," according to PDC's Project Manager Richard Wiand. "The problem for many companies is finding the time to use this guidance to determine their applicable rules and regulations. The 'Regulatory Wizard' automatically performs the numerous decisions and often tedious processing for this evaluation, thereby improving efficiency, reducing permitting costs, and providing documentation of the decision-making process."

Consortium members, which include Alcoa, BASF, Bayer, Chevron, Conoco, Coastal Corp., Crown Central Petroleum, Dow, Dynergy Midstream, Eastman Chemical, E.I. Dupont, EVALCA, Exxon, GB Biosciences, Goodyear, Mobil, Merisol, Phillips Petroleum, Reynolds Metals, Shell, Simpson Paper, and Solutia, participate in the development of new compliance technology and in an innovative government rules update service. Several consulting engineering firms assist PDC in furnishing this update service, designed to help companies meet their goals in a changing regulatory environment.

"Both the governmental rules and the manufacturing operations inside the plants are constantly being modified," according to PDC President, Jerry O'Brien, "so regulatory compliance can easily become a 'moving target.' Computer software features such as the 'Regulatory Wizard' will help companies assess the impact of operational changes on their applicable rules," O'Brien added, "and a comprehensive, up-to-date database of state and federal rules is critical to success."

Vice-president and Houston Regional Manager, Paul Nix, explained how the 'Regulatory Wizard' software can assist companies to standardize their compliance programs by identifying similar applicable rules for similar types of equipment. "Standardization reduces variability in the basic structure of the compliance management program, which supports company goals for reliability, cost containment, and staff productivity." He noted that one of the permit application forms published by the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission, or TNRCC, asks fewer than a dozen questions about a company's storage tank. Depending on how these questions are answered, over 5,000 possible answer profiles can result -- each of which could imply a different set of government rules. "If companies do not standardize their approach, and utilize the power and accuracy of computer program rules processing," according to Nix, "they could error by identifying excessive regulatory requirements, or by understating their requirements -- either type of mistake could lead to higher costs and inefficient management programs."

In some states, the environmental agencies have already issued federal air operating permits, also called "Title V Permits" -- a reference to Title V of the Clean Air Act -- which authorizes environmental agencies to issue permits for most large industrial operations. Regulatory agencies in highly industrialized states like Texas followed a phased implementation of their permitting programs, concentrating on smaller industrial operations first. Chemical plants and oil refineries in Texas must submit their federal air operating permit applications to the TNRCC by the spring of the Year 2000. "Companies will need the 'Regulatory Wizard' features as soon as possible to record the equipment inventory data and descriptive information that is used by our system to determine applicable rules," Mr. Wiand noted. To handle quick turnaround of regulatory-driven software changes, the consortium members receive all of their upgrades via PDC's website. PDC plans to deploy the 'Regulatory Wizard' to more than 450 plant sites that license its software products for environmental compliance starting next month, according to Wiand.

Consortium members and other companies that license PDC's Air Compliance Modules software will see the 'Regulatory Wizard' as a new feature in their programs. "PDC licenses an air emissions electronic reporting system, called WinCeis, to more than 100 Texas companies," Nix explained. "These clients can leverage the information in their existing systems by using the 'Regulatory Wizard' to determine applicable rules and regulations, while maintaining consistency with emissions reporting and other regulatory programs." Developed initially to support Texas air operating permits, PDC plans to modify the 'Regulatory Wizard' to support its clients located in other states.

"Determining all of the regulatory compliance requirements in a large manufacturing plant can be a major project," according to PDC's Jerry O'Brien. "These plants typically operate thousands of pieces of equipment, each of which could be subject to different monitoring, record keeping, and reporting requirements, depending on how the equipment is being used," he explained. "For example, fuel-burning equipment such as a boiler may be designed to use more than one type of fuel. Different rules will apply to the equipment, depending on the type of fuel used." The same principle applies to tanks that store different materials, and to many other types of equipment. Consequently, companies can face a major challenge defining applicable rules for their equipment under all possible modes of operation, and demonstrating compliance with these rules for agency inspectors. "Computer-based data management is the only reasonable alternative for meeting these needs," he added.

PDC has provided computer-based solutions to environmental compliance needs for more than twelve years. Software products manage information for: air quality, hazardous waste disposal, wastewater discharges, and Material Safety Data Sheets. Known collectively as the Open Solutions for Compliance, PDC's software products operate on Oracle and Sybase client/server database platforms, and under a variety of operating systems and networks, including Intranet websites. From its headquarters in Dallas, PDC serves industrial clients in the Gulf coast and in other areas of the country. Regional offices located in Houston and Austin, Texas, and in Albany, New York, extend PDC's capabilities and reduce response time for supporting mission-critical environmental compliance applications. International representatives for PDC software products are located in Taiwan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, and England. PDC can be reached by calling 214/631-6561, or by visiting their website at www.PDCCORP.com.