Responsible Official Account Approval: e-Verify and ESA

Preliminary Information

With very few exceptions, all persons creating a GEOS Responsible Official (RO) account needs to get their RO status approved. This is done by going through the e-Verify process or, if all 3 e-Verify attempts fail, they must mail in the original of the signed paper electronic subscriber agreement (ESA). Of course mailing in the paper ESA requires more time to get approval as EPD must receive and review the ESA information and approve the RO if the RO meets the legal requirements.

NOTE: If you use the e-Verify method and get approved and you do not meet the legal requirements to be an RO for your organization, facility or project, your account can be deactivated without notice until the situation is rectified. When you request to be an RO, you are stating that that you have ultimate responsible for the operation of the business or property involved. For a business an RO is usually someone like a CEO, COO, president or vice president or director of a division of a large company. For a facility it can be the plant manager. For Stormwater Construction the RO should be the property owner or someone meeting the RO requirement if the property is owned by a business. You may view the legal requirements for being an RO on the second and third pages of the Responsible Official Delegation form.

A person who is directly employed by the business owning the permitted facility or property may be delegated using the RO Delegation form mentioned above. Consultants are not legally allowed to be an RO for their client's business or property. The RO/property owner should create an RO account and associate and authorize the consultant with their account to complete applications and reports to be submitted by the RO.

Two Ways to get Approval of RO Accounts: e-Verify and ESA methods

e-Verify Details

The e-Verify method is the fastest way to get your RO status approved as it is all done online. Please read the following before going through the process. EPD does not get your sensitive information.

Requirements for e-Verify

1. RO's legal name as appears on their driver license or tax returns must be on the GEOS account profile.If correction necessary, contact EPD at [e-mail] before going through e-Verify. GEOS accounts are issued to the individual who created the account and they may use the account for future employment and get the former facility removed.
2. RO's personal home address.
3. RO's personal home phone number or personal cell number if no home phone exists.
4. Last 4 digits of RO's social security number.
5. RO's date of birth. If unable to select birth date, update or use another web browser.

Going Through e-Verify after Account Creation

To go through e-Verify after account creation:

1. Log in to GEOS
2. Click “My Account”
3. Click the “Associate Facilities” tab on the next page.
4. Click the yellow e-Verify button to open the e-Verify form.
5. Enter required information as described above and verify the information is correct before proceeding.
6. Click the "Continue Registration Process" button only ONCE and wait for the response.
7. If the response indicates "Congratulations ..." then identity verification was successful and the RO account is automatically approved and the e-Verify window may be closed.
8. If identity verification fails on the first attempt and the RO has changed home address within the past few years, the RO should do a subsequent attempt using their previous home address.
9. If e-Verify fails to verify the RO's identity on all 3 attempts, they will need to use the ESA method described below. Note that even if all information is correctly entered, identity verification is not guaranteed.

The ESA (paper subscriber agreement) method
Note that this method can take some time as it requires the ESA to be received in the mail

1. Log in to GEOS
2. Click “My Account”
3. Click the “Associate Facilities” tab on the next page.
4. All facilities and projects must be added to the RO's account prior to being able to print the ESA. If facilities are not present in the table on the page the link to print the ESA will either not be active or not be shown.
   See here for how to associate facilities to the RO's account.
5. If facilities and options needing approval are present, click the link below the table to print the subscriber agreement.
6. A PDF document will open. It contains all ESAs that need to be printed, signed and mailed. There is a 4-page ESA for each facility listed.
7. Print the electronic subscriber agreements.
8. The RO must sign both sections E and F of each agreement.
9. Mail the agreements bearing the RO's original ink signatures to the address on the first page of any of the agreements. That address is:
   
   EPD IT - GEOS Administrator
   Environmental Protection Division
   2 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive
   Suite 1456, East Tower
   Atlanta, GA 30334

When Georgia EPD receives the agreements and reviews and approves the RO, an email will be sent to the RO advising that their RO status has been approved.

For both the e-Verify and ESA processes, once the Ro is approved they ay associate Preparers/Consultants who can complete applications and reports for the RO to submit.