For our November 19, 2015 meeting, NEOCHMM was fortunate to have Jennifer Kurko again speak to our Chapter.  Jennifer is the Assistant District Chief of Ohio’s EPA’s Northeast District Office in Twinsburg.  

The last time Jennifer spoke to us, Ohio EPA was in the midst of a major initiative to put many of the District’s records in an electronic format.  As a result of that effort, many of Ohio EPA’s documents are now available on line.  

Since that time, Craig Butler was appointed Director of Ohio EPA.  Craig was a long time employee of the Ohio EPA and wanted to make many of the Agency’s programs more user-friendly. 

Jennifer detailed the reorganization within the Ohio EPA to make that happen.

The Division of Environmental and Financial Assistance was reorganized to help customers in the administration of grants, assistance with regulations, assistance with wastewater treatment plant operations, and listing of training opportunities.

The Office of Compliance Assistance and Pollution Prevention was enhanced to help small businesses and other Ohio organizations comply with environmental regulations, prevent pollution and fund recycling and litter prevention efforts.

The Division of Surface Water employed Lean techniques that used Kaizen and Six Sigma principles to improve the processing of NPDES permits.

Jenifer’s presentation ended with a lively audience discussion of what processes at the Agency has improved and where opportunities existed for additional improvement.

Our thanks to Jennifer Kurko for an interesting presentation on the inside workings at the Ohio EPA and Northeast District Office.