of department hearings.

1. The commissioner shall develop and maintain a registry of government agencies and officials and of private organizations of statewide, regional, county and local scope, with interests in the regulatory and other programs of the department for the purpose of providing written notice to such agencies and organizations of the time, date, place, subject and nature of hearings on rules and regulations under consideration by the department, or on applications to the department for permits relating to the use, improvement, construction, change or any modification whatsoever of the air, land, or water resources within the state, or in relation to any other business before the department for which issuance of a public notice is required or is appropriate and desirable in accord with the interests of public participation in environmental planning and decision-making.

2. To aid in the compilation of the registry, the commissioner shall advertise its purposes no less than annually to governmental agencies and the public through news releases and other media available to the department, stating that interested agencies and organizations may apply to be listed in the registry by completing forms requiring such information as may be prescribed by the commissioner. Said registry shall be prepared by the department to be as comprehensive as possible and the entries contained therein shall not be limited to those obtained in response to advertisement by the department of the purposes of the registry.

3. The commissioner shall publish and distribute or cause to be published and distributed said registry, not less frequently than annually and in whole or in part as deemed appropriate and desirable by the commissioner, for the purpose of providing a directory to assist with communications between public agencies and private organizations in all manner of environmental affairs.

4. Notices, as described herein, shall, at the discretion of the commissioner, be published not less frequently than once every two weeks in a departmental publication which shall be mailed to registered agencies and organizations in the area to be affected by the subject of said notices and to other persons subscribing to such publication; provided that the commissioner may require the payment of a subscription fee not to exceed the reasonable costs of such publication; and provided further that the commissioner may in lieu of publishing any such notice mail a copy thereof to registered agencies or organizations. In setting such fee the commissioner shall take into account the purposes of this section to provide broad public notice of department actions. Unless otherwise provided by statute or regulation, failure to provide notice as herein described shall in no way affect the ordinary proceedings of the department.