Amberly Schulz is described by her colleagues in the Missouri Department of Natural Resources as an employee who sees a problem, drills down into the details then implements solutions to correct any issues.
Schulz, an environmental specialist III who lives in Columbia and works in Jefferson City, was selected as the State Employee of the Month for May. She has worked for the department for nearly five years.
In July 2018, she started in the Stormwater and Certification Unit of the Water Protection Program's Operating Permits Section, according to her nomination form. In a little more than a year of becoming the primary master general permit writer, she played a crucial role in bringing the program's templates up to date. In addition, she issued 56 site-specific industrial permits in 2018-19, as well as drafting eight site-specific permits pending issuance, two modifications and at least four transfers from site-specific to general.
She also has created a permit writers training for section staff and has become the expert on ARARs - Applicable or Relevant and Appropriate Requirements - for hazardous waste sites. She is credited with researching emerging contaminants, as well as drafting industrial process wastewater and stormwater permits, working to reduce the water permitting backlog, and taking on projects that arise unexpectedly.
One such project was her action to correct errors in the Missouri Clean Water Information System related to how fees are collected from permittees and how data are characterized for reports.
"Early in 2019, Amberly noticed that some permits were not being charged the correct amount or even at all," Environmental Supervisor Stacia Bax wrote. "Through an investigation into how MoCWIS captures data that permit writers and permitting admins enter into our database, she discovered that both corrective action and education were needed."
Bax explained that Schulz first combed through a query of Missouri's industrial site-specific permits to be sure the permit writer had chosen the correct categories in MoCWIS. Secondly, she worked with the Water Protection Program's Fiscal Management Unit fee staff to send notices to make permittees aware of the mistakes and explain future bills would reflect corrected fees. Then she made the appropriate edits in MoCWIS. Finally, she educated the permit writers and administrative staff on how to properly enter the data to prevent errors in the future.
Schulz found 64 incorrectly billed facilities, of which 15 were overbilled, resulting in decreased fees totaling $23,000 per year, while the remaining 49 facilities had their fees increased to the correct amount listed in state regulations, for a total of approximately $73,350 per year. The net increase in water pollution permit fees was about $50,350 annually.
In addition, Sherry Bell with the Fiscal Management Unit and Schulz collected $11,000 in back permit fees as a result of several facilities not receiving invoices.
Meanwhile, Heather Peters, chief of the Industrial Permits Unit, pointed out Schulz is not officially a member of that unit's team, yet she has worked to reduce the permit backlog by at least 40 permits during recent backlog reduction efforts.
"Her intelligence and willingness to discuss and debate the many facets of our work lead to stronger and better permits, not just those that she issues, but those of her teammates as well," Peters noted. "The industrial permitting team is grateful for her efforts and willingness to continuously help in the permitting process."
Bax concluded, "As Amberly's supervisor, I have received several notes of praise for her work throughout her tenure in my unit, including an instance where she remained calm and professional in a permittee meeting that needed those characteristics. She is a very valuable member of the department, and I am so appreciative to have Amberly on our team."