Bismarck — Department of Environmental Quality Director Dave Blott used his committee testimony to give an overview of the agency’s programs, recent accomplishments and several operational challenges, including permitting workload for large energy projects and litigation with federal regulators.

Blott described the DEQ as organized into seven divisions — Air Quality, Water Quality, Municipal Facilities, Waste Management and Chemistry, plus the Director’s Office and Accounting — and said the department employs about 173 FTEs across engineers, scientists, chemists, technicians and administrative staff.

Why it matters: The overview explains how the state implements federally delegated environmental programs, where the agency is relying on state primacy agreements, and how staffing and federal funding shifts affect permitting and oversight for major projects.

Primacy and permitting: Blott told the committee the DEQ holds primacy agreements with EPA to implement federal programs at the state level under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and RCRA. He described a permitting pipeline that can take months for large facilities and said the agency performs complex technical reviews in‑house. “A permit can be over $100,000 on those big ones — we charge for the time that we put into it,” he said.

Blott highlighted two high‑profile permit reviews the agency has processed: the Dakota Carbon Center East Project LLC’s Project Tundra (a proposed carbon capture and sequestration retrofit of a coal plant) and Saralon, a large gas‑to‑liquids facility. Both projects are novel and require significant technical review even before construction.

Enforcement, monitoring and recent results: The director said the agency maintains nine plus continuous ambient air monitors statewide and plans to add another in the northeast. He reported results from a recent EPA helicopter flyover: “They looked at 750 sites. They found 7 violations,” and Blott added, “that’s 99% compliance,” using the figure to illustrate high compliance rates in the oilfield.

Emerging contaminants and monitoring: Blott discussed PFAS, calling it a class of thousands of compounds that are persistent in the environment and noted detection at very low levels creates new technical and communication challenges. He explained the DEQ sees PFAS in wastewater and landfills and described the agency’s interest in developing PFAS testing capacity in the new chemistry laboratory.

Waste management highlights: The DEQ’s waste division described success in working with the wind‑energy industry to remove more than 100 abandoned wind turbine blades left on private property, secured a $500,000 federal radon awareness and mitigation award, and operates an abandoned auto fund supported by DOT fees to remove derelict vehicles.

Legal and federal relationship: Blott said the agency is involved in multiple lawsuits challenging EPA actions and cited delays by EPA on nondiscretionary decisions as a recurring problem that forces states to seek judicial resolution. He described the state’s approach as “following science and the law” and said the agency’s workload can be affected by swings in federal priorities.

Staffing and capacity: Senators asked whether DEQ has the staffing and technical depth to review multiple large projects simultaneously. Blott said the agency can handle current workload but would “have to sit and say you got to wait in line” if several large projects arrived at once; he described prioritization as the practical approach.

Closing: Blott and department staff took committee questions and agreed to provide requested data and program histories. No committee action was recorded during the testimony.