The Joint Legislative Budget and Finance Committee report last week that estimated the cost of wastewater systems meeting Chesapeake Bay cleanup requirements in Pennsylvania at $1.4 billion puts to rest the more than three year controversy over the cost to ratepayers.

However, the PA Municipal Authorities Association said the delay and the reaction of the Department of Environmental Protection to the report will make finding the needed financial resources from local, state and federal sources to meet these requirements more difficult.

gThis delay in assessing actual costs has prevented a dedicated funding source for Bay upgrades. Communities are facing historically high construction and materials costs along with a diminishing ability to access bond funding in a depressed economy, while being held to a fixed time frame for these upgrades,h said John Brosious, Deputy Director of PMAA.

Authorities, municipalities, engineers, financial consultants and environmental attorneys have collectively been disappointed for three years at the inordinately low estimates DEP originally provided. The significant underestimating of costs by DEP caused controversial debate on the true cost, resulting in action by the General Assembly to commission the Metcalf and Eddy study.

DEPfs response to the report in a letter to the Committee dismisses the notion that state or federal financial assistance is warranted stating that gthe responsibility for wastewater treatment rests with the owners of discharging facilities.h DEP also said gthe report should therefore avoid promoting the expectation that communities can expect funding to meet new requirements.h

In July, the General Assembly and Gov. Rendell did approve $1.2 billion in water infrastructure funding to in part deal with wastewater plant upgrades across the Commonwealth. Voters overwhelmingly approved $400 million of that funding in the form of a bond issue in November.

PMAA said the approach to funding needed infrastructure improvement in Pennsylvania is much different from the assistance efforts Maryland and Virginia have provided their communities. Each of those states have made available more than $750 million to their treatment plants to meet Chesapeake Bay upgrades alone.

The Metcalf and Eddy study also questions the effectiveness of the current Nutrient Credit Trading Program managed by DEP, and finds it lacking as a viable alternative to plant upgrades. They conclude changes would need to be made to make this a practical option.

The Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Association (PMAA) represents many of the sewage treatment plants impacted by the DEP Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy. In 2005 PMAA estimated that the cost to these 184 impacted treatment plants would be $1 billion. This was based on a PMAA survey initiated in response to a DEP estimate that the cost would be only $190 million.

The Joint Legislative Budget and Finance Committee contracted with Metcalf and Eddy to conduct an independent study of these costs. This occurred in response to a unanimously passed Senate resolution, introduced by Sen. Patricia Vance (R-Cumberland), to determine the actual costs to these plants since the DEP estimate and the estimate from PMAA and others varied so widely.

Metcalf and Eddyfs study surveyed the 184 impacted treatment plants to assess their costs to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus loads which eventually make their way to the Bay and looked at the practicality of the DEP Nutrient Credit Trading program.

For more information, see last week's PA Environment Digest.

NewsClip: Op-Ed:Nutrient Credit Trading Can Cut Costs, Ease Bay Pollution

Sewer Upgrades Will Cost $1.4 Billion

$1.4 Billion Chesapeake Bay Fix Estimate 7 Times More Than DEP Projection

Estimate Soars For Upgrades To Sewer Plants

Nutrients: Too Much Of A Good Thing

11/29/2008