Committee Spotlight: Environmental

BY TYLER MICIK

The State Chamber’s Environmental Committee, whose mission is to bring environmental leaders together to discuss and solve challenges facing businesses and help shape environmental policy in Delaware, met in mid-September for its quarterly meeting.

The committee was joined by Greg Patterson, secretary of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), who provided an update on the department and its priority workstreams.

He discussed DNREC’s fee package (HB 175), which the General Assembly passed and the governor signed earlier this year. Prior to the introduction of the bill, members of the State Chamber’s Environmental Committee met with the department to provide input, which helped shape the legislation and make it one the State Chamber could support.

While it is uncommon for the State Chamber to support fee increases, we did so because the fees had not been adjusted in decades and were necessary for DNREC to make the permitting process improvements Secretary Patterson committed to implementing. Secretary Patterson thanked the State Chamber for its support and shared that the department is working daily to deliver those improvements. For example, DNREC has revised its subaqueous permit process so larger, more complex applications are no longer in the same queue as smaller ones, helping prevent delays for simpler permits. Patterson also noted that the department recently launched a dashboard where applicants can track high-value permit types, such as well and septic permits.

The State Chamber’s Environmental Committee will continue to serve as a place for these important conversations and be a partner in creating solutions to challenges faced by the business community. If you’re interested in participating in the committee, please contact me at tmicik@dscc.com.