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Executive Voices
Environmental Permits
We're speeding up the process while still
protecting our natural resources
By William G. Ross Jr.
Businesses
in rural and urban areas have a major interest in the timing and complexity of
acquiring environmental permits for economic development. Gov. Mike Easley and I
are keenly aware of the importance of economic development across the state, but
also of the importance of development occurring in a way that leaves a natural
resource base that will enable our grandchildren to have the opportunity to live
healthy, prosperous, happy lives. To those ends, the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources has placed a high priority on making permit programs more
efficient and more effective.
Over the past two years, the department has developed a number of efforts to
improve communication with the regulated community and make permit programs work
better. We have made more effective use of staff resources and the applicant’s
time without sacrificing the quality of our environmental review or the
protection of the environment.
DENR has reduced overlap in permitting requirements by changes such as
delegating to the Division of Coastal Management the authority to issue 401
water quality certifications in the 20 coastal counties at the same time it
issues a coastal permit. DCM also provides, through a general permit developed
with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the single point of contact for Coastal
Area Management Act projects that also require federal permits under Section 404
of the Clean Water Act and Section 10 Rivers & Harbor Act (for piers &
wharves).
Other delegations have moved permitting responsibilities out of the DENR central
offices in Raleigh and closer to the projects and applicants themselves. For
example, 14 local governments have authorization to approve water line
extensions, 11 to approve sewer line extensions, and 61 to approve erosion and
sedimentation control plans. The Division of Water Quality has delegated
stormwater permits to regional staff for approval, and has delegated to all
regional offices the review and approval of sewer line extensions.
We have heard particular concerns and questions about the impact of DENR permit
reviews on highway projects. The Department of Transportation and DENR staff
have worked diligently over the last two years to find ways to make the highway
design process and environmental permit reviews fit together better in a way
that avoids unnecessary delays, reduces costs and enhances ecological
protection.
An innovative partnership among DOT, the Corps of Engineers, DENR and other
review agencies, called the Ecosystem Enhancement Program (EEP), will address
what DOT identified as the biggest cause of delay and expense in environmental
permitting of road projects. In the past, DOT was responsible for developing a
wetland mitigation plan as part of its permit application. The EEP partnership
will save time and money for highway construction projects, while compensating
much more effectively for the unavoidable impacts of road construction on
streams and wetlands.
Because mitigation for highway projects will be done in advance of construction,
road projects will not be delayed at the end of the permitting process by the
need to obtain approval of a mitigation plan. In addition, this program will
allow DOT and DENR to implement wetland and stream mitigation for transportation
projects in a manner that better preserves and enhances the way the affected
watershed functions.
The Division of Water Quality is also making some procedural changes to expedite
DOT projects. These efforts include working with DOT to draft a general
certification allowing DOT to proceed without an application for 401 Wetland
permits associated with minor improvements to existing secondary roads. DOT will
provide notification of such projects for periodic operations audit by DWQ
staff. DWQ will modify the organization of the 401 water quality section that
reviews DOT projects to add a supervisory position and an additional permit
specialist, thereby creating a team to work specifically on highway projects.
Regulatory programs throughout DENR have made other procedural changes to speed
up permit actions. Ninety percent of wetland (401) permits are now issued as
general permits rather than individual permits, which saves time for applicants,
and the DWQ 401 wetlands group has implemented a twice-weekly group review of
all plan submittals, acting on the majority of applications right away.
If the department does not issue or deny a permit in three-quarters of the
allowable review time, the applicant may request an elevated permit conference
with the division director or regional supervisor. The conference would be held
within five working days of the request and require the attendance of the permit
staff, the property owner, developer, and project design engineer/consultant.
In the state budget recently passed, DENR received $500,000 as one-time,
start-up funding for a pilot program to speed permit approvals. Businesses that
choose may pay a special fee for an “express permit review.” The review will
be conducted by new staff and within a specified timeframe. All applicants will
benefit, because those who choose not to enter the new program will find their
applications in a shorter line. We are working out details such as which
regulatory programs will participate and how much the fees will be.
DENR staff will continue to work with groups such as NCCBI and with individual
businesses to support the growth of North Carolina’s economy in ways that also
protect the health of its people and its natural resources. We must all strive
to advance our state’s triple bottom line ć environmental, economic and
social progress. The sustainability of one is irrevocably interdependent and
interconnected to the other two.
Bill Ross has been secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources since January 2001.
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