Helping States Solve Environmental Challenges

For more than 40 years, ERG has been at the forefront of helping state agencies and organizations in addressing pressing environmental challenges and enhancing their programs to protect the environment and communities. ERG provides our clients tailored, impactful support to meet their unique needs. We identify and bring together an array of skills from across ERG, utilizing a cross-disciplinary team of environmental scientists, engineers, communications specialists, data scientists, economists, web designers, and other professionals to develop innovative solutions in collaboration with our clients.

We support organizations at multiple levels—state, regional, county, tribal, and local—to solve environmental challenges in states across the country.

Here are examples of how our team delivers impactful support across the country:

Making Post-Wildfire Environmental Monitoring Data Accessible to All - In response to the tragic Maui wildfires in 2023, ERG has been supporting the Hawaii Department of Health and partners in compiling, visualizing, and providing public access to environmental sampling data for a range of hazardous substances that could have been released during the fires in Lahaina and Kula in an interactive online data dashboard. This initiative ensures that the public has access to crucial information, empowering individuals, families, and communities to make informed decisions and take necessary precautions to protect their health and safety.

Improving Air Quality and Optimizing Permitting Efficiency - ERG’s team of air quality and permitting experts helps our regulatory clients more efficiently and thoroughly review permits, while ensuring compliance with air quality regulations. For Maricopa County, Arizona, ERG is helping the county maintain an exceptional record of meeting required air quality permitting timelines through the implementation of efficient but rigorous permit review procedures. Similarly, ERG staff has been approved as a Qualified Professional under Pennsylvania’s Streamlining Permits for Economic Expansion and Development (SPEED) program, helping the state in expediting air permit reviews while keeping economic development considerations at the forefront.

Assessing Air Quality Impacts from Industry - For Colorado, ERG is evaluating the air quality impacts of petroleum refineries in the state, comparing relevant regulatory requirements in the state with requirements in other states and Federal regulations, and identifying best practices and technologies to help state regulators minimize emissions from petroleum refineries.

Helping Eliminate Lead in Drinking Water - For multiple states, such as Hawaii, New Mexico, and Nevada, ERG has helped develop lead service line inventories to reduce community exposure to lead in drinking water and comply with the federal Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR).

Protecting Wetlands - For the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, ERG helped implement an interim dredge and fill program by establishing permitting processes to protect the water quality and biodiversity in sensitive wetland habitats for “gap waters” that fall outside the federal Clean Water Act’s jurisdiction.

Reducing Surface Water Pollution - ERG provides wide-ranging technical support across multiple states including Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, and Virginia, to protect surface water quality through implementation of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). This includes supporting water quality standards and total maximum daily load (TMDL) programs, developing nutrient trading approaches, writing NPDES permits, conducting compliance inspections, supporting enforcement, providing training, and more.

Creating Healthy and Sustainable Learning Environments for Children - ERG’s sustainability experts and public health scientists have prepared a comprehensive report for the Massachusetts State Legislature, identifying strategies and best practices for creating sustainable and healthy learning environments for students across the Commonwealth. ERG’s clean transportation experts have provided technical and planning support to many states to guide their school bus electrification efforts. For New York, ERG developed a School Bus Electrification Roadmap and Guidebook, and ERG assists the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and eight Massachusetts school districts in achieving the school bus electrification goals set by the state. Under contract to the U.S. EPA, ERG’s circular economy experts prepared the Oregon School Food Share Program Guide to provide guidance to Oregon schools and districts on implementing a school food share and donation program.

Protecting Children and Communities from Harmful Chemicals - ERG’s public health scientists and digital solutions experts collaborated to construct the High Priority Chemicals Data System (HPCDS), an online platform that supports reporting of information about the presence of chemicals of concern in children’s products, required by statute in Oregon, Washington, and Vermont. ERG is developing a similar tool for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to support the mandatory reporting of products containing intentionally added per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).