FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, August 22, 2005
Contact: Spence Jackson at (573)751-0290 or
Connie Patterson at (573) 751-1010
New Structure at Department of Natural Resources Will Better Serve Missourians
Compliance assistance focus helps Missouri businesses, communities, citizens, protect environment
JEFFERSON CITY—Gov. Matt Blunt today announced improvements at the Missouri Department of Natural Resources that will help businesses, communities and citizens protect the environment.
"An improved focus on compliance assistance will help Missouri business and citizens protect their natural resources," Gov. Blunt said. "The role of the Department of Natural Resources is to strike that proper balance of the preservation of our state’s natural resources with the need to encourage economic growth in our state."
As part of his compliance assistance initiative, Department of Natural Resources Director Doyle Childers has established a Division of Field Services. This new division will consolidate the department’s five regional offices, its Environmental Services Program and several related functions from other divisions. "Compliance assistance to the public is everyone’s job in the Department of Natural Resources," Childers said. "Our goal is more efficiency and more credibility among the people we serve."
To improve communication, the department is locating an ombudsman at each regional office. The ombudsman will be independent of the regional office and will inform the regional director and the department director of issues, concerns and problems and assist in issue development. Removing some time-consuming responsibilities from the regional directors should free up more of their time to address their added professional, technical and leadership responsibilities.
The department also merged its Air and Land Protection Division with its Water Protection and Soil Conservation Division to form the Division of Environmental Quality. Eliminating a division within the agency will help to increase efficiencies within the department’s existing budget, including the ombudsman program and additional satellite offices.
By placing staff where the needs are, the department is also cutting down on "windshield time," or time spent traveling by staff to statewide locations, according to Childers. "One major issue that appears to affect productivity in numerous state organizations, including our own, is the amount of time spent in transit to locations where attention is needed," he said. "We have mapped out the geographical locations with the greatest number of contacts required via permits, complaints and so forth. We then designed a network that more fully uses the necessary staff members in the locations where their services are in the most demand."
The department has already opened a temporary office in Carthage to provide staff better access to the citizens and their concerns about odor problems in that part of the state. There are plans to open satellite offices in Maryville and Rolla; additional locations in West Plains, Hannibal and Portageville at the Delta Center are also under consideration.
Providing assistance on the front end will help Missouri businesses and citizens stay in compliance with environmental laws and regulations, said Childers. "Our goal is not to issue violation notices in an arbitrary manner. In fact, violation notices are a measure of last resort," he said. "We want to achieve compliance with the state and federal laws in a cooperative manner with the citizens."
In conjunction with ensuring compliance, the department will focus its litigation on cases appropriate to ensure enforcement. "If an entity is polluting, we will take action," Childers said. "Where necessary, we will enforce cases to the fullest extent of the law." An internal Enforcement Review Board will assist in this effort by looking at cases for consistency and the need for elevation of the issue.
Several months ago, Gov. Blunt challenged the department to find a better method of providing permits to the public. In conjunction with the consolidated information technology functions established by the Office of Administration, the department is looking at a computer-based system of issuing permits, except for very complex and difficult operations.
In addition to permitting, an internal workgroup is looking at consistency in the department’s regulatory functions. Once the work of the internal teams is complete, the department will invite external stakeholders, including representatives of business and environmental groups, to provide their thoughts and comments.
For more information, contact the Department of Natural Resources at 1-800-361-4827 or (573) 751-1010.