Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials say revised permits for stormwater discharges from small municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4) are expected shortly.
Following the September 2014 release of the draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) general permit for MS4s in Massachusetts, the MMA expressed concerns about the cost that the new requirements would place on municipalities.
The federal Clean Water Act requires that the MS4 permit be re-evaluated every five years to ensure that it continues to protect the environment. The previous permit was issued in 2003.
The EPA says the new permits will help communities meet water quality standards and deal with the impacts of climate change. Draft permit requirements include illicit discharge detection and elimination, new requirements for signage and outfall testing and management of stormwater runoff.
The MMA has been participating in an NPDES Delegation Advisory Committee, formed by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, to explore the possibility of the DEP taking delegated authority over NPDES programs. Authorization would allow the DEP to be the stormwater permit-issuing authority, rather than the EPA.
The advisory committee has met three times so far and has discussed staffing needs, cost, funding and implementation.
Forty-seven states have obtained authorization from the EPA to administer the NPDES program. The DEP has reached out to other delegated states in New England to get more information about the advantages and disadvantages of delegation and the process moving forward.
The MMA’s Policy Committee on Energy and the Environment has not yet taken a position on the issue of NPDES delegation.
Municipal officials are being urged, meanwhile, to respond to an online survey being conducted by the Division of Local Mandates in the state auditor’s office to examine the cost impacts of local water infrastructure maintenance. The survey asks communities about drinking water funding and improvement programs, wastewater funding and improvement programs, and stormwater compliance and capacity.
The auditor’s office will use the survey results to report on the ways that regulatory changes, climate change, and a growing backlog of water system upgrades are affecting municipal budgets.
In a letter to municipal officials, the Division of Local Mandates said the purpose of the survey is “to update the estimate of our state’s water infrastructure investment gap and to examine potential best practices, regulatory strategies and funding mechanisms designed to help close that gap … as well as to solicit local input on the current use of various funding sources and the embrace of new water system strategies and technologies designed to improve efficiency and manage costs.
For more information about the survey, contact Tom Champion at the Division of Local Mandates at thomas.champion@sao.state.ma.us or (857) 242-5427.
In a 2012 report, the Massachusetts Water Infrastructure Finance Commission identified an estimated funding gap of $21.4 billion for water and wastewater infrastructure over the next 20 years: $10.2 billion for drinking water and $11.2 billion for wastewater. Additionally, it was estimated that it could take an estimated $18 billion in stormwater investments over the next 20 years for communities to meet the EPA’s regulatory requirements.