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Commissioner wants DEC to be timely, predictable, rational Ballard tells House committee DEC is moving ahead with proposal to take primacy on National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permitting Kristen Nelson PNA Editor-in-Chief
Department of Environmental Conservation Ernesta Ballard told the House Resources Committee Feb. 3 that she has worked both sides of the regulatory fence, having spent about half of a 30-year career in public service and about half in the private sector:
“So I’ve cursed those public servants who have gotten in my way at times and then on the other hand I have been in the public side and cursed those industrialists who petitioned me for some sort of consideration.”
Ballard said her goals for the department are based on state statutes, the governor’s administrative order requiring departments to perform performance audits and the need to keep the cost of government under control.
“And in doing all that, I am attempting to achieve efficient permitting and broad compliance,” Ballard said.
Statutory basis State statute “establishes the state’s interest — the public interest — and it asserts that the state is the trustee of the environment for present and future generations” and sets out the duties of DEC to adopt and enforce protective standards for the prevention of pollution and the protection of public health, she said. This requires balancing private rights — such as the desire of Alaskans to be left alone — with the broader public interest in protecting the environment.
The Legislature has established that policy balance, Ballard said: “It’s up to me to achieve an implementation of it and that’s where I see our relationship and that’s what I see my responsibility to do.”
She also touched on the issue of public confidence in the department:
“I believe that confidence in DEC will be achieved when our performance is timely and predictable and rational and based on facts. And … conversely, I … believe that our credibility will suffer if our actions appear to be based on generalized concerns or personal values — no matter how heartfelt they may be — that are unrelated to the legislative goals that I’ve shared with you today.”
Performance standards Ballard gave the committee a list of standards by which she expects to be measured:
“I want regulatory proposals that are forthcoming from DEC to be easy to understand and well coordinated with other state departments and federal agencies.
“I want to use regulatory discretion to tailor our actions to Alaskan circumstances.
“I want our web pages to be searchable and to be interactive.
“I want our permit programs to be self-implementing as much as possible.
“I want our field presence to be increase.
“I want enforcement to be the predictable consequence of deceit and equivocation.
“And I want to offer the opportunity for public comment to citizens throughout the state at places and at times that are convenient for them.”
Roadblock? Asked by Rep. Cheryll Heinze, R-Anchorage, how the department could move from being perceived as a roadblock to being more positively perceived, Ballard said she couldn’t comment about past perceptions, but “I can tell you what I hope will form conclusions in the future:
“We have permit programs. They are not deny programs — they are permit programs. And in order to issue a permit we have the responsibility to set protective standards.”
Ballard said she believes the environmental laws in the United States and in Alaska “are the best in the world and I believe therefore that there is no reason that development and use of our resources, development on our land, cannot be permitted in a way that satisfies the need for protection and allows planning for the future by the owners of the capital necessary to do that development.”
Efficiency? Committee co-chair Hugh Fate, R-Fairbanks, asked what steps were being taken in the department to make permitting more efficient.
Ballard said several initiatives were under way, including work done in the previous administration in the area of air permitting where affected stakeholders have been working on how “our air permitting program can be made to look more like the federal program. So that if you’re an engineer with a client in Colorado and a client in Alaska, the permits look enough alike that it’s quick and simple to move forward in advising the client.” Ballard said DEC will be proposing a number of changes suggested by that work group.
The last Legislature asked for a proposal to delegate food safety inspection program and Ballard said DEC “will propose a streamlining in which we set the standard by which food safety inspections will be done and food preparation will be done but, where possible, delegate the inspection to a lower level of … government.”
Ballard also said she is asking DEC to focus on the agency’s statutory mission and “say no to some of the activities we’ve been involved in that … often come to us from federal grants” where the activity is important to the federal government “but may or may not be on mission for the state.”
BAT conferences Rep. Heinze asked about best available technology conferences, and Ballard said DEC is doing staff work now for a conference next year. Larry Dietrick, director of DEC’s Division of Spill Prevention and Response, told Heinze that $200,000 had been allocated through capital improvement projects, “so it’s five-year money,” he said. DEC is now laying groundwork for the conference with the regional citizens advisory councils, has a work group identified and is ready to start putting together a proposal.
“It’s important for us to be sure that we’re not just holding a trade show, that what we’re actually doing is providing a demonstration opportunity against clean-up standards that we believe are appropriate,” Ballard said.
State primacy Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, asked Ballard about state primacy, and Ballard said there are about 30 opportunities at DEC for federal programs that can be delegated to the state to implement, “about half of which are presently delegated to the state and we run them.”
Ballard said she thinks state operation of these programs is appropriate:
“The federal government is not going to do the site-specific, discretionary things that are available to the state agency. They will simply implement the strictest most protective result without consideration of any of the site-specific circumstances.”
All states seek delegation, she said, because every state “prides itself on its unique circumstances and prides itself on understanding the special circumstances of their geology, their industry, their climate — whatever it may be.”
Alaska is no different in that regard, Ballard said, “but we are different from other states in the very few numbers of delegations that we have arranged with the federal government.”
Ballard said Alaska has “among the fewest if not the fewest” of such delegations.
DEC is working on an extremely important delegation that Alaska does not have: the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permitting program. The Legislature has given DEC funds “to present a program to receive the delegation” and the department hopes to have the report ready at the end of the year, she said.
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