New DNR Air Quality Process Cuts Time, Helps Economic Planning

DES MOINES-A new process will help Iowa’s largest manufacturers obtain air permits in record time and make planning for major expansions more precise by creating less variability in the time needed to issue permits, Department of Natural Resources officials announced today.

Using Japanese-inspired efficiency techniques, which have successfully cut issuance times for other air permits, the DNR tackled Prevention of Significant Deterioration type air permits which are issued for major new manufacturing expansions at some of the most economically vital facilities in Iowa. The detailed permits require extensive information and review, necessary to ensure that Iowa’s good air quality is maintained.

“Our major goal is issuing all PSD permits in 180 calendar days,” said Jane Mild, the DNR’s team leader for the project. “Other complex permits will be issued in 90 days. Current permit issuance times average 214 days, but some permits can take twice that time. And other states need even longer amounts of time.”

A team of DNR and Economic Development staff and representatives from Cargill, Deere & Company, Equistar Chemical, Pella Corp., Trinity Consultants, Stanley Environmental and the U.S. EPA worked on a week long, intensive review of the permit process using Kaizen techniques.

“In order to streamline the process and reduce variability, we focused on the front end of the process, prior to submittal of the permit application,” said team member Jim Nitzschke, a staff engineer with Deere & Company. The goal is to increase the quality of information included in the permit application to make the review process flow smoothly, he said.

To do so, the DNR will hold pre-application meetings with company officials and the EPA to discuss the project. State officials and team members say the new approach will help clearly lay out the expectations for the permit and avoid issues that cause delays such as inadequate information.

“That’s significant. What it does is create a partnership. Really, what was causing delay, was everyone working in silos,” said Roger McCombs of Pella Corp., a team member and facilitator.

The DNR also released technical guidelines to help businesses prepare their permit applications. Both efforts began this January. Training will also be offered.

“The purpose is to improve communication between DNR, EPA and the regulated community in terms of what is required for good permit applications,” said Nitzschke. “The new guidelines are designed to help industry understand what is needed and what the process is with fewer surprises,” he said.

The team also established a measurable process so future improvements can be made. “The team discovered a true process was lacking in the current method of issuing permits,” said the DNR’s Mild. “But now we have developed a process flowchart to help everyone understand the steps involved. This will allow us to make further efficiency improvements in the future,” she said.

“What the team did was to try to develop a standard, a target, to try to accomplish repetitively over time. I think they took a significant amount of time out of the system,” said McCombs of Pella Corp.

The DNR has completed seven business process improvement efforts using Japanese inspired techniques in the past year as part of a major commitment to increase efficiency. By eliminating idle time and waste in permit processing and avoiding errors, improvements are made without reducing environmental protection.

“I think the new process changes are phenomenal,” said Catharine Fitszimmons, air quality bureau chief. “We used to do three PSD projects a year, for many years, and now do 16 or more per year. That’s a huge change that reflects an economy where people have to change manufacturing processing very quickly and the DNR is meeting this challenge.”

For more information contact the DNR’s Jane Mild at 515-281-5105, or Aaron Schmidt at 515-281-4897.