Applied Ecosystem Services, LLC

It is common for environmental permit holders and regulators to speak past each other and not communicate. This frustrates and angers both sides, yet it is easily avoided. Over the decades I’ve seen the results of such mis-communication and the costs to the permit holder. This blog post will teach you how to effectively communicate with regulators (if you are a permit holder) and with permit holders (if you are a regulator.)

It is obvious that permit holders and regulators have much different backgrounds, but the major reason for mis-communication is that each has a very different agenda.

Regulators are focused on protecting their position and their agency. Permit writers and compliance enforcement staff almost always have manuals specifying what they do and how they do it. They don’t understand the needs of the business they regulate.

Permit holders know their business very well and focus on sustaining it at a profitable level. Environmental staff at a large operation understand the regulations and often have good communications with regulatory agency staff. It is the smaller operators who have the most difficulty with environmental regulations and agency staff because their background and all their focus is on the business they run.

It is most important for permit holders to understand how to operate effectively while providing regulatory staff with the information they need.

Look at your permit for compliance requirements. Usually these are monitoring related. Do you have documents showing your compliance? If so, offer them to the compliance agent when they visit your project. Demonstrating how your documents comply with permit conditions gives the regulatory staffer proof that they can check off all inspection boxes and head on to the next facility.

Of course, there’s more that can be done, but this is a good start. You present documentation to the agency that their needs have been met.