The Commonwealth of Virginia has launched a statewide permit tracking platform based on the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Permitting Enhancement & Evaluation Platform (PEEP), which was launched last year as a pilot program. PEEP – DEQ’s effort to increase transparency and efficiency in the permitting process – has garnered honors including the ECOS 2023 State Program Innovation Award.
The new Virginia Permitting Transparency website similarly provides the public a centralized platform to track the daily status and timeline of critical steps for Virginia’s permits. Currently, the permits of three agencies are available on the website: Virginia DEQ, Virginia Energy, and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission. Additional agencies will be added in the coming months.
In related news, DEQ staff recently met with Alberta’s Ministry of Environment & Protected Areas to share the challenges and successes in implementing PEEP as the Canadian province works to implement a similar online permitting management application. DEQ will continue collaborating with Alberta on robust e-permitting solutions.
