Small Business Clean Air Assistance Program

Wisconsin's Small Business Clean Air Assistance Program (SBCAAP) helps small businesses understand and comply with state and federal air pollution regulations. Section 507 of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments requires each state to operate a small business assistance program.

The SBCAAP serves as a free, confidential, and non-regulatory resource to small business owners throughout the state. Through the program, Clean Air Specialists work as a liaison between small businesses and state (Department of Natural Resources or DNR) and federal (US Environmental Protection Agency or EPA) regulators. The staff creates "plain language" publications, answers compliance questions, conducts on-site consultations, responds to written and verbal regulatory inquiries, coordinates environmental compliance workshops and directs businesses to other pertinent technical assistance providers.

Projects have included outreach efforts to small industries and businesses employing 100 or fewer employees involved in such activities as:

• Chromium Electroplating
• Fiberglass Reinforced Plastics
• Dry Cleaning
  
• Industrial Adhesives
• Lithographic Printing
• Motor Vehicle Refinishing
• Solvent Degreasing
• Spray Painting and Coating
• Wood Finishing
• Wood Furniture Manufacturing

The SBCAAP reaches thousands of businesses each year through meetings, speaking engagements, workshops, and publications. The program currently offers more than 70 different fact sheets, rule summaries, record keeping and reporting forms and other documents designed to make environmental compliance easier for Wisconsin businesses. The majority of this information is available on the SBCAAP web pages, which you can get to by using the navigation menu on the left side of this page.

Here are a few key resources you can use to figure out if environmental regulations apply to your business:

• Go through DNR's Permit Primer to find out which of their environmental permits might be required. This is a detailed series of questions and answers that walk you through each of their permit programs. Be prepared to spend a good deal of time to go through all sections of the Primer.
• Complete the New Business or Existing Business Surveys, to give us the details necessary about your operations to check on what regulations might affect you. The facility contact information is for our purposes only, so we can send a report back to you on what your environmental obligations are and how you can go about complying with the requirements that apply.
• Review the Environmental Information Summary which provides a brief summary of a range of environmental requirements managed by DNR, Commerce, EPA, OSHA and others.  

If you're looking for training or workshops on air pollution or other environmental issues, check out the Events page for the Business Development Division.  

For information on new regulations or programs that may impact your operations, check our Announcements page.  

  Staff Contact Information

For more information on the program, please contact: