State environmental official says EPA “might be our biggest problem”
North Dakota has been under an air quality alert off and on for weeks, prompting numerous warnings from state environmental officials, most recently on September 9.
The North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality is actively monitoring wildfires in the western United States and Canada. Based on current weather patterns, residents across the state may experience intermittent smoke over the next few days.
Everyone understands that wildfire smoke from outside the state obviously causes the hazy conditions, as do state environmental quality experts. But that’s not good enough for Environmental Protection Agency bureaucrats. The EPA requires state environmental staff to spend valuable time and resources to prove the air quality violation originates from sources outside North Dakota anyway.
That’s just one example of EPA overreach cited by state representatives at a recent environmental conference in the North Dakota Monitor.
Wildfire smoke wafted over North Dakota on Wednesday. For Jim Semerad of the Department of Environmental Quality, that will mean more work.
That’s because the department will have to show the federal Environmental Protection Agency that the smoke is actually coming from wildfires and not some other source of air pollution.
“We will go through a great deal of effort to prove something we already know,” said Semerad, who leads the department’s air quality division.
The Upper Midwest Air and Waste Management Association conference brought together academic, government and industry experts to discuss environmental issues and solutions. One of the biggest problems underscored by state environmental experts was ever more burdensome federal regulations that make it more difficult to do their job.
Semerad said EPA staff are well-intentioned but EPA bureaucracy gets in the way of protecting environmental quality.
“Our biggest problem might be the EPA,” Semerad said.
Chuck Hyatt, of DEQ’s waste management division, said one of the biggest roadblocks to working with the EPA is a lack of trust.
“They don’t necessarily trust what is going on in certain states,” Hyatt said. “And I wonder about that. Where does that come from?”
The North Dakota Legislature has appropriated $15 million for legal fees to challenge the Biden administration’s overreach in environmental and other regulations. But state officials may ask legislators for even more support.
Wednesday’s agenda included a session by Erik Wallevand, a lawyer in the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office, on tips for challenging federal regulations.
With factors such as federal regulations, retirements and other staff turnover, Semerad said something new for the department is struggling to keep up with clean air permits.
Semerad said there may be a request for more staff in the 2025 legislative session.