DEP Increasing Permit Fees By $23.4 Million To Offset Dramatic Budget Cuts

The Environmental Quality Board this week took the latest in a series of steps to adopt increases in permit review fees for the Department of Environmental Protection totaling about $23.4 million to help offset the dramatic cuts in the agency's General Fund budget.

The EQB adopted changes to Chapter 92 for comment which would result in increasing NPDES water quality permit fee revenue from about $750,000 annually to about $5 million. In addition to increasing permit review fees, the agency is also proposing an annual permit administration fee for the first time.

The new NPDES fees will have an impact on 5,000 industrial and public wastewater treatment systems across the state as well as about 5,000 applicants applying for NPDES General Permits.

In July the EQB finalized changes to permit fees for Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling applications to increase revenue from about $935,000 a year to $8.4 million for FY 2009-10.

In June changes were proposed to Chapter 102 Erosion and Sedimentation regulations to increase application fees to yield about $7.3 million annually instead of about $635,000. Much of the increase-- about $5 million- would go to county conservation districts which perform this permit review work.

Other fee changes proposed this year include--

-- Proposed Laboratory Accreditation fees increased from $500,000 to $1.3 million;

-- Proposed Air Quality fee increases from $20.2 million to $24.4 million; and

-- DEP's Mining and Reclamation Advisory Board is now consider substantial fee increases for mining permits.

Only the Marcellus Shale fees have been finalize so far.