Jim Semerad, left, and Marty Haroldson of the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality were part of a panel discussion Sept. 4, 2024, at a conference in Bismarck. (Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor)

Wildfire smoke wafted over North Dakota on Wednesday. For Jim Semerad of the Department of Environmental Quality, that will mean more work. 

That’s because the department will have to show the federal Environmental Protection Agency that the smoke is actually coming from wildfires and not some other source of air pollution. 

“We will go through a great deal of effort to prove something we already know,” said Semerad, who leads the department’s air quality division. 

Semerad and others from the department were speaking Wednesday at a North Dakota Regional Environmental Conference in Bismarck. The conference was organized by the Air and Waste Management Association. 

Semerad said staying on top of the ballooning amount of federal regulations can make it difficult for the agency to focus on what is really important — ensuring good environmental health. 

The department sent a news release Wednesday morning advising the public of the air quality issues because of the wildfire smoke. 

Semerad said EPA staff are well-intentioned but EPA bureaucracy gets in the way of protecting environmental quality. 

“Our biggest problem might be the EPA,” Semerad said. 

Chuck Hyatt, of DEQ’s waste management division, said one of the biggest roadblocks to working with the EPA is a lack of trust. 

“They don’t necessarily trust what is going on in certain states,” Hyatt said. “And I wonder about that. Where does that come from?” 

North Dakota has several ongoing legal battles with the EPA, including being the lead state challenging a mercury emissions rule that North Dakota officials have said threatens the state’s lignite coal industry. 

Wednesday’s agenda included a session by Erik Wallevand, a lawyer in the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office, on tips for challenging federal regulations. 

With factors such as federal regulations, retirements and other staff turnover, Semerad said something new for the department is struggling to keep up with clean air permits. 

Semerad said there may be a request for more staff in the 2025 legislative session. 

Semerad acknowledged that some of the workload comes from Mother Nature, with North Dakota being a state of extreme temperatures and weather and random events, such as wildfires. 

“It’s kind of an invisible thing,” Semerad said of the work created by wildfires. “No additional inspections, no additional improvements to air quality. It’s just a reporting requirement. 

“I guess that might be something that the Legislature needs to better understand.”

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