Redesign of the 2005 Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditure Survey

The Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures (PACE) survey is the only comprehensive source of pollution abatement costs and expenditures related to environmental protection in the manufacturing sector of the United States. The PACE survey was conducted annually from 1973 to 1994, with the exception of 1987. The PACE survey was reinstituted again in 2000 to collect pollution abatement cost data for reference year 1999. The survey has not been administered since 2000 in order for the EPA to evaluate the accuracy of the survey responses. To accomplish this, the EPA engaged in an evaluation process which took approximately a year-and-a-half and included two major phases. The first phase involved working with an expert panel and one-on-one interviews with facilities and trade associations to develop the 2004 PACE survey and guidance document. The second phase of the project included a pretest and pilot test of the 2004 PACE survey and guidance document. This paper will present the results of the pretest, including findings from an independent engineering cost assessment, and discuss how feedback obtained during the site visits shaped the 2005 PACE survey and guidelines.