Study finds long delays for Minnesota air and water permits; recommends process changes

St. Paul — A new study presented Dec. 3 to the Subcommittee on Minnesota Water Policy found Minnesota often takes far longer than peer states to issue complex air and individual industrial water permits, slowing some capital investments and expansions.

The Minnesota Chamber Foundation and Barr Engineering told the subcommittee that priority tier 2 air permits and individual industrial MPDES water permits frequently exceed the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s (MPCA) issuance goals and peer-state averages, and recommended increased prioritization of timeliness, more general (tier 1) permits where appropriate, clearer anti-degradation guidance, and an online tracking dashboard.

The study’s authors said the analysis looked at permit-level administrative records and state-by-state comparisons to estimate how permitting timelines affect economic output. “We were not looking at anything that would reduce the overall environmental standards of our permitting regulations,” Sean O’Neil of the Minnesota Chamber Foundation said. “We’re simply looking at how we can streamline them to have them be more efficient so companies can get through a process faster and with more certainty.”

Key findings presented to the subcommittee included:

- Air permits: Tier 1 air permits were generally processed quickly (about a month or less). Priority tier 2 air permits showed wide variation; between 2018 and 2023 some were issued in as few as 29 days while others took hundreds of days. The median was reported at 351 days and the average at 586 days; only about 5–17% of priority tier 2 air permits met the MPCA’s stated 150-day issuance goal in that period.

- Water permits: For priority individual industrial MPDES permits (tier 2 permits required for discharges to surface waters when not covered by a general permit), Barr Engineering reported averages of about 476 days to issue a new individual industrial MPDES permit and about 377 days for a major modification. The MPCA administers roughly 226 individual industrial MPDES permits and, as of about a year ago, roughly two-thirds of those permits were being administratively continued past their expiration dates — on average about six and a half years, with some more than 23 years past expiration.

- Cross-state comparison and economic estimates: The report’s benchmarking found Minnesota taking roughly 1.5 to six times longer than selected peer states to issue comparable federal air permits. The study estimated that aligning permitting timelines closer to peers could yield an annual economic output gain of roughly $260 million to $910 million and create between about 960 and 3,400 additional jobs annually.

The presenters identified several likely contributing factors on the water side, including Minnesota’s more involved anti-degradation procedures required under the federal Clean Water Act, a large number of water-quality criteria and impaired waters to consider, and limited online transparency tools for MPDES permit tracking. “Minnesota’s anti-degradation procedures can be more difficult to navigate and more time consuming than some of the procedures of other states,” Jennifer Fleming of Barr Engineering said when describing water permitting complexity.

On the air side, the presenters cited lengthy air modeling requirements and noted other states use approaches such as separating construction and operating permits so construction can proceed while an operating permit is finalized, and use of third-party permitting professionals in limited cases to accelerate caseloads.

Members of the subcommittee asked about measurement of timelines before an application is deemed administratively complete. O’Neil and Fleming said the study could not reliably measure the pre-completeness period because the dataset tracks days beginning when an application is declared complete; the presenters recommended exploring efficiencies in the pre-submittal and completeness review stage.

MPCA staff clarified to the committee that the agency measures the statutory 90- and 150-day timelines starting when an application is received, and stressed that some process improvements may require additional staff or budget resources.

The presenters closed with a set of options the study supports: prioritize schedule certainty for complex permits, reduce the backlog of renewals and minor modifications, expand tier 1 general permits where appropriate, clarify and streamline anti-degradation procedures, and increase transparency and collaboration between permittees and agency staff.

If implemented, the study’s authors said, those changes would aim to preserve environmental protections while reducing uncertainty and delay for businesses seeking to expand or invest in Minnesota.

The subcommittee took no formal legislative action at the Dec. 3 meeting and moved to questions and follow-up from members.