WHAT WE LEARNED: CHALLENGES, EFFICIENCIES AND NEW POLICIES
On a rare sunny day in January, members of SWEP Three Rivers Chapter met at the Southwest Regional office of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) for our first Brown Bag Lunch of 2018. The Three Rivers SWEP Brown Bag Lunch will augment our event series and provide a casual gathering for our members to hear about important topics related to environmental issues. Our first Brown Bag Lunch featured the new PA DEP Southwest Regional Director, Ronald Schwartz, P.E., BCEE, and his staff who shared their perspective about hot topics and new policies affecting industry and environmental professionals in Pennsylvania. Three Rivers SWEP members filled the room to capacity and were treated to a vibrant and informative discussion, of which, a few of the key takeaways are summarized here.
A Focus on Efficiencies:
The Southwest Region has been particularly challenged by funding constraints coupled with a high attrition rate due to retirements and opportunities in industry. Despite an increased workload, the statewide staff contingent has dropped 43% in the last decade. Ron addressed this challenge and commended the hard work and commitment of his team as evidenced by a 60% reduction in the backlog of permits in the last six months of 2017 in the Southwest Region.
To increase efficiencies, decrease review times and help applicants submit complete applications, PA DEP is increasing the number of permit applications which can be submitted online and prioritizing new hires in programs with the greatest workload.*
PA DEP’s Southwest Regional staff reiterated their commitment to the department’s mission to protect the environment while increasing efficiencies in the permitting and compliance processes.
The Oil and Gas program has piloted online applications, demonstrating that this decreases the time required to review and make permit decisions. In addition, inspectors in the field have been provided iPads and other technologies enabling them to file inspection reports from the field. These tools are allowing PA DEP to catch up with industry.
If you file oil and gas permits using e-Well, please know that the program will be replaced in 2018 with the goal of further improving efficiency.
E-permitting in the Waterways and Wetlands Program is on the schedule, but there is no estimated date currently for when it will roll out.
The File Room contains decades of paper files for all programs making reviews time consuming and sometimes requiring many visits to the Southwest office to research. Currently the file room is understaffed, and it can take 1-2 months to get an appointment to review files. PA DEP will embark on a process to digitize its files in 2018, ultimately providing electronic access to files.
At the state level, PA DEP is creating a new Regional Coordination Office, which will coordinate permit reviews for projects spanning multiple regions, including pipelines and highways. The office is currently being staffed, so look for an announcement that they are open for business soon.
Each speaker emphasized the value of pre-application meetings to ensure a timely decision and to provide applicants the information they need to submit a complete application. They strongly suggested that projects presented at pre-application meetings should be close to final design for DEP to provide an accurate assessment of the permits required for a given project.
New program requirements and regulatory changes:**
- PAG-02 was to have expired December 2017 but was extended for an additional two years.
- DEP is developing a General Permit for small projects less than 5 acres.
- Oversight of the NPDES permits for construction activity has been consolidated into one bureau (Clean Water) in Harrisburg with other types of NPDES permits (this does not represent a substantive change for regional permitting).
- PA DEP is updating a Stormwater BMP manual, which should be complete in 2020.
- Chapter 105 – the environmental assessment was revised, and new protocols incorporated.
In addition to Director Schwartz, the SWEP Three Rivers Chapter would like to thank the following PA DEP Southwest Regional staff for their presentations and time:
- Dana Drake, Environmental Program Manager, Waterways & Wetlands,
- Renee Diehl, Environmental Group Manager, Safe Drinking Water,
- Kareen Milcic, Environmental Group Manager, Southwest District Oil and Gas Operations,
- Brian Schimmel, Local Government Liaison, and
- Lauren Fraley, Community Relations Coordinator.
PA DEP Southwest Regional staff with SWEP Three Rivers Board Members
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PA DEP Southwest Regional staff with SWEP Three Rivers Board Members
For more information, please refer to the following resources:
*On January 26, Gov. Tom Wolf announced that he will include $2.5 million in the 2018-19 budget for additional staffing at PA DEP.
** The GP-5 and GP-5A proposed revisions, part of Gov. Wolf’s methane reduction strategy, will be finalized in Q1 of 2018. This page has the latest information on the process.
To capitalize on the success to date, DEP will continue to implement new approaches to its permitting processes by simplifying bureaucratic and outdated procedures, while continuing its mission of protecting the environment. New initiatives include:
- Expanding the e-permitting system to include several key development permits, reducing the time spent trading paper between DEP and industry;
- Creating a new analytics program that helps managers track progress on open permit applications – allowing them to know how long permits have been in the system;
- Releasing new review processes and registration practices for key development permits for clarification on what is needed to complete an application and make it easier to apply for these permits; and
Supporting common sense legislation that will bring the permit process in line with the industry it is engaged with, such as extending permit terms and allowing multi-well pad permitting.
Would you like to see more? Visit the photo gallery from the event or check out our Twitter Moment.
