Following Governor Walz’s declaration of a state of peacetime emergency in Minnesota, The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has released guidance for regulated entities who may have felt the impacts of the order.
Reduced workforce volume has made it difficult to maintain normal operations for some facilities. These facilities are still obligated to ensure compliance with environmental laws, regulation, and permit requirements.
However, if there is an instance in which a regulated entity will experience an unavoidable noncompliance situation due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the MPCA has released new guidance.
Effected entities should follow the procedure below to request consideration for a form of regulatory relief from the MPCA. Where possible, the MPCA may allow reporting deadline extensions, operator certification extensions, among other reliefs.
Regulated entities who have been effected should send an email to MPCA.COVID19REGFLEX@state.mn.us with specific information related to their request for regulatory relief.
The following information should be included in the email, at a minimum:
- Requests should come from an individual party (company/county/individual) and identify the party requesting the relief by name and applicable permit number;
- Requests should include a phone number(s) of the individual to contact regarding the Request;
- Request should state what specific statute/rule/permit condition the individual party is looking for relief from;
- Request should include the reasoning/rationale for the request (1 paragraph summary on why the peacetime emergency makes the relief sought necessary and what actions the requestor took prior to the request to meet the requirement);
- Request should include bulleted points of what measures will be taken to mitigate/minimize the potential environmental impacts (if any); and
- Request should specify the specific time period that the request is for including the rationale.
The MPCA will work with each entity to come to an appropriate solution for each individual situation.
