A power plant which had been filing quarterly air emission exceedance reports sought Varnum's advice when it appeared that it would be submitting a quarterly report with more than 5% exceedances. The previous rule of thumb had been that staying below 5% exceedances resulted in no violations being cited; however, at the time of inquiry Varnum was aware of a new zero tolerance policy that would permit no exceedances.

Working with the client, Varnum suggested testing its monitoring equipment for accuracy; the tests revealed that unreliable monitoring equipment was partially responsible for the exceedances. Through a series of strategic discussions with the client and an environmental consultant, a re-permitting strategy was devised that would eliminate all future exceedances.

Varnum organized a pre-application meeting with the MDEQ to discuss this approach, additional revisions to the permit application were made, and a permit was submitted. A new permit was issued within four weeks that provided sufficient flexibility for the facility to meet the implemented zero tolerance policy, and there was no letter of violation on the exceedances that had caused the company to seek legal counsel.