“This Legislature expects the agency to document and prove that we have shaken every tree,” Stepp said.

Top DNR administrators are now looking for solutions in the department’s internal staffing study, prelude to a reorganization to be announced later this summer following a 20-percent decline in full-time department employees over the last two decades.

Some work done by DNR employees may be eliminated so that more staff can be added to water pollution regulation and other core functions, Stepp said.

Some of the problems in regulating water quality stem from employee turnover and job vacancies at DNR, she said.

It can take up to two years to train a new employee to work proficiently with complicated laws and rules governing pollution permits, said Patrick Stevens, the DNR’s top administrator for regulation of industrial and municipal pollutants. The permits are issued to polluters spelling out limits for their discharges and practices for controlling toxins.

Stepp recalled her days as a McDonald’s restaurant manager as she talked about how state employment rules have hobbled the DNR. Stepp said she could quickly mobilize her fast-food employees when a busload of customers arrived unexpectedly, but the DNR can’t react that nimbly to retirements.