McBride said participants in the program will be required to report and correct violations, “and if they don’t report, they’ll be in trouble for that. It’s not just a free ride.”

He said the audits will help the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality spot potential problems before they grow more serious.

“Actually, it’s more transparency than what we have now,” McBride said. “You’re going to get these regulated (industries) to report voluntarily, where now we’re getting nothing. ... We don’t have enough manpower to monitor these (industries) like they need to be.”

McBride said that while the audits would be confidential in most circumstances, violations of state or federal regulations would not be.

Also Tuesday:

Some interesting management accompanied the passage of SB 608, by Sen. Kim David, R-Porter, a bill that has laid bare some wounds from the recent fights over rewriting Oklahoma’s liquor laws.

Legislators say they’ve been subjected to intense lobbying for and against the bill, which could determine who controls access to the most popular wine and spirits labels.