DNR will privatize tank inspections

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Department of Natural Resources has halted its staff inspections of underground storage tanks and plans to shift the task to private contractors.

Department director Doyle Childers said he hopes privatizing the inspections can save several hundred thousand dollars a year.

State tank inspections were suspended in June until a plan to privatize the work could be put in place. Since then, the 16 state inspectors have transferred within the agency or found new jobs.

Environmentalists said privatizing the regulatory service could make it difficult to get records and harder for the public to monitor inspections.

"It becomes much more difficult, if not impossible, for any of us to tell whether they are doing their job," said Ted Heisel, executive director of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment.

The privatization of tank inspections is part of Childers' plan to revamp the department. Another of his initiatives is the creation of regional ombudsmen.

The ombudsmen program is intended to improve the department's external communications.

Ombudsmen are to field public concerns and pass those along to the department's state and regional directors. Childers has said he hopes that will free up time for regional directors to focus on other issues.

The department said Wednesday that Michael Alesandrini -- environmental affairs director for the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association -- has been hired as ombudsman for the St. Louis area. He is to start in the new position Oct. 1.

Alesandrini is the sixth person to be hired to full or part-time ombudsman positions. The only remaining ombudsman vacancy is in the Kansas City area.

Several of the ombudsmen are former legislators -- former Sen. Bill Foster, R-Popular Bluff; former Rep. Don Summers, R-Unionville; and former Rep. Jim Froelker, R-Gerald. The other ombudsmen are Dave Woolery, a Taney County Republican and retired Southwestern Bell employee, and Carrie Smith, who was Gov. Matt Blunt's regional director in Springfield when he was secretary of state.