When a long-standing client faced a complex permitting question, they turned to Barr for support. The client wanted to understand how the conditions in a current permit compared with those of other industrial facilities across the state, with a specific focus on water quality standards and designated water bodies. Historically, answering a question like this required a team of staff to manually review and summarize hundreds of individual permits, an intensive and time-consuming process.
Instead, Barr’s team proposed an innovative approach using an AI-assisted workflow to rapidly extract key information from more than 500 permits across Minnesota. We developed a custom natural language processing workflow to extract the data, creating a searchable database of facility discharge information. The database included permit stations and effluent limits, location data, and whether the facility released to a listed water body. Our GIS team then mapped this data, giving the client a clear view of how their permit compared to others across the region.
The approach delivered timely, targeted insights and created a foundation the client can reuse to answer future regulatory questions. By combining subject-matter expertise with AI-supported tools, we helped the client gain clarity and context faster and more efficiently than before. Learn more about our AI-integrated solutions.