Local officials discuss DEP primacy for stormwater

The public comment period is long over for draft federal regulations for discharges from small municipal stormwater systems, but concerns persist about the cost burden of the regulations on municipalities.

Municipal officials have been discussing the possibility of the state obtaining delegated authority (primacy) over the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, which would allow the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to be the permit issuing authority rather than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. All but four states have primacy for stormwater permitting.

The federal Clean Water Act requires that the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) permit be re-evaluated every five years to ensure that it continues to protect the environment. The previous permit was issued in 2003.

Municipal storm sewer systems collect rain and snowmelt from streets and direct the flow to water bodies. The new MS4 permits would require communities to institute more advanced programs to reduce pollutants that are discharged into rivers, lakes and bays.

The proposed rules include “best management practices,” such as removing illegal sewage connections to storm drains, street sweeping, public education, and steps to expand the filtration of stormwater rather than diverting it into sewer systems. The EPA’s draft rules go beyond best practices, however, and would impose costly new requirements that have alarmed local officials. A state commission on infrastructure finance has estimated that implementing the EPA’s MS4 regulations would cost cities and towns as much as $18 billion over the next 20 years.

In a letter to the EPA, MMA Executive Director Geoff Beckwith wrote: “We urge the EPA to amend its approach, and incorporate goals that are more realistically attainable and within the financial constraints of the current economic climate, or wait until adequate federal funding is available to ensure that these requirements do not translate into a harmful unfunded mandate on cities, towns and taxpayers.”

In July 2013, at the request of the Legislature, the DEP issued a comprehensive report examining the feasibility of the DEP assuming primacy for stormwater. The DEP found that administering the NPDES program would cost the state approximately $9 million to $10 million annually. The department examined three possible sources of funding to offset its costs: permit fees, a general annual appropriation, and wastewater assessment fees.

The DEP found numerous advantages of assuming primacy from the EPA, including a better understanding of local issues, a more efficient permitting process, and better coordination in managing all pollution.

The disadvantages include program costs, lack of capacity to run the program at the DEP, and a lack of consistency in funding for the department.

Some municipal officials have asked the Baker administration to revisit the study and investigate it further within the DEP and any other affected agencies.

Marlborough Mayor Arthur Vigeant said the draft MS4 permit “would significantly increase costs for the city of Marlborough and every municipality in Massachusetts.”

“I have read the DEP report about delegation, and the benefits of having NPDES permits issued by the DEP outweigh the costs,” he said. “Forty-six other states have chosen delegation, and I see no reason why Massachusetts should not join them.”

If the DEP were to assume primacy, the affected MS4 communities would likely end up with additional costs from the DEP to run the program, similar to what is done with drinking water permitting, where the DEP has primacy. Since 1993, the Safe Drinking Water Act Assessment has helped the DEP’s Drinking Water Program maintain primacy to implement the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

Public water systems and their customers pay an assessment charge of $8.50 per million gallons used. For fiscal 2010, this revenue totaled $2.1 million, according to the DEP report.

The Safe Drinking Water Act Assessment supports public water systems in Massachusetts. The assessment is used as a state match for federal funds for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and allows the DEP to fund a water quality monitoring waiver program, which saves water systems millions of dollars by reducing the frequency of monitoring systems with a history of good water quality and effective source protection.

For more information on MS4 permitting, visit www.epa.gov/region1/npdes/stormwater.