If the latest round of Pennvest funding is any indication, sewage treatment plants expecting state funding for their Chesapeake Bay nutrient reduction projects will be severely disappointed, according to the most recent Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy Update published by the PA Municipal Authorities Association.

 

Pennvest recently awarded $530 million in loans and grants for water and sewer projects throughout the state, the single largest expenditure of state infrastructure funding in history.

 

Ironically, with this influx of new infrastructure money the projects required to meet new Chesapeake Bay mandates from DEP were woefully underfunded.

 

With Commonwealth Finance Authority (CFA) funds to be announced this month and in July, and another Pennvest round to be announced in July, this oversight points to a potentially disturbing trend of non-recognition of the need facing communities with plant upgrades to meet these new Bay limits.

Out of 58 projects Pennvest recently funded, exactly three Bay related upgrades received state money.

Gratz received a $1 million grant, Mt. Carmel received an $18.8 million grant and a $2.8 million loan and the Greater Hazleton Authority received a $30 million loan.

 

The funding of only a few Bay projects is particularly surprising coming on the heels of the recent Metcalf and Eddy study commissioned by the State Senate. A national engineering firm, Metcalf and Eddy, working under contract with the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee, conducted a six-month study to determine Chesapeake Bay upgrade costs at Pennsylvania sewage treatment plants.

They concluded that the cost to the initial 184 affected plants was $1.4 billion, with another $61 million/year in new operations and maintenance costs.

 

The initial 184 plants would be required to meet standards in a seven year phased schedule. The largest 63 plants in Phase 1 received their new NPDES permits with Bay limits for nutrients last year.

The 53 Phase 2 plants will receive their new permits this year and the final 68 Phase 3 plants will get new permits next year. Essentially, most plants will have five years to complete their projects although additional time, if necessary, will be reflected in permits.

 

Eventually all plants in the Susquehanna River Basin, and Potomac, not just the first 184 identified, will be required to meet Bay limits.

 

Interestingly, the recent Pennvest funding identified one Phase 1 plant, one Phase 2 plant and a plant not included in the first 184.

 

Greater Hazleton, the Phase 1 plant, received their $30 million to cover a total plant upgrade which also included their Chesapeake Bay work. Mt. Carmel, Phase 2, will likewise do other upgrades in addition to their Bay work. Gratz, not one of the original 184 plants in the seven year phase-in, will use their $1 million for mostly Bay work.

 

Out of 184 plants needing to meet new Bay standards in the next seven years, only two, Hazleton and Mt. Carmel were able to secure Pennvest funding. Most of the remaining 182 plants are left pondering the availability of funding relief from the state.

 

Many plants were hopeful that the recent influx of state funding from Acts 63 and 64 of last year, $1.2 billion in loans and grants to be administered by Pennvest and the CFA, would be available for their Bay upgrades.

 

CFA has yet to announce any infrastructure projects for their $800 million in grant funding and it is expected that their May meeting will only fund dam repair and flood control projects, and that the July meeting will fund other water, sewer and stormwater projects.

 

To date Pennvest has allocated very little of the $400 million they received to provide loans and grants for water, sewer and stormwater projects. They are expected to announce project recipients at their July meeting using part of this money, the remaining federal stimulus money and some of their regular funding revenue.

 

The concern with these dates and the statewide competition for funds is that Bay projects, already moving forward under permits (and in many cases, "shovel ready") will be overlooked once again.

Our sister states, Maryland and Virginia have already committed significant state funds to Bay projects: $1.2 billion in Maryland and at least $750 million in Virginia.

 

With $1.2 billion in new state funding and an additional $220 million in federal stimulus funds, Pennsylvania is poised to fund $1.4 billion in new infrastructure. It is an oversight of huge consequence that Pennsylvania Bay projects are, and may continue to be, overlooked in the appropriation of these funds.

 

The lack of any state funding to help cover these mandated upgrades leaves communities with the unpleasant task of severe rate increases to cover their entire Bay project costs.

 

PMAA and others are calling on our midstate Senators and Representatives to require the CFA and Pennvest to give every consideration to the funding of mandated Chesapeake Bay projects before these funds are gone.