As part of the Remediation and Redevelopment Program’s continuing outreach to its customers, the program wants to remind consultants and responsible parties that:

(1) Wis. Admin. Code § NR 700 rule series (hereafter “NR 700”) specifies the technical reports or documents that must be submitted to the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) regardless of whether the responsible party is requesting a fee review or not; and

(2) Those documents are to be prepared by or under the supervision of a professional engineer, hydrogeologist or scientist as those terms are specifically defined in NR 712.03. This rule chapter requires: (1) appropriate qualifications of the consultant; (2) signatures; and (3) certification language to be included with the appropriate NR 700 submittals.

NR 712 Certification Requirements

• Documents or reports submitted as part of the NR 700 response action process are being reviewed by DNR staff to ensure that the appropriate NR 712 signatures are included on the documents, and signed by a person with the requisite consultant qualifications for that submittal, as specified by NR 712 and other chapters in the NR 700 rule series.
• DNR will provide notice to the responsible party (RP) and/or party that submitted the document of any missing signatures, inaccurate certification language, or the lack of appropriate consultant qualifications for that specific submittal.
• For fee-related reviews, the timeframe for reviewing the submittal will commence once the proper signatures, certification language and qualification certification have been received by the DNR.
• For non-fee submittals, any additional DNR review will not commence until the appropriate signatures and qualifications are submitted to the DNR.

This chapter of NR 700 has been in effect since 1995, and was most recently updated in October 2013.

NR 716 Site Investigation Report and Case Closure Chapters NR 700.11 and NR 716 require the submittal of a site investigation report. In the event that the DNR receives a case closure request and there is no site investigation report(s) in the DNR’s site file, the DNR will notify the RP and consultant that the submittal is administratively incomplete, and the closure review process will be put on hold until a site investigation report is received. Review of the closure request will begin once a site investigation report is submitted, along with any other noted administrative deficiencies.

The following publications lay out what NR 700 documents must be submitted, when they should be submitted, how they should be submitted and by whom:

• Guidance for Electronic Submittals for the Remediation and Redevelopment Program (RR-690)*;
• Proper Submittal of Documents and Requests for Assistance (RR-971)*;
• NR 700 Process & Timeline Overview (RR-967); and
• NR 712: Personnel Qualifications for Conducting Environmental Response Actions.

(Note: DNR is in the process of updating and combining into a single publication RR-690 and RR-971, the latter of which will be archived. The next RR Report will provide a link to the updated RR-690.)