Communities fear new U.S. rules on storm runoff will be costly

By David Abel

Boston Globe, Wednesday, January 27, 2009

In a bid to protect shellfish and curb beach closings and pollution of local waters, federal officials released a draft plan yesterday that would require 84 communities in the state to comply with new regulations that seek to reduce the stormwater runoff into municipal storm drains.

Advocates representing municipalities and public works directors worried the costs of complying with the new plan would be onerous, especially as towns and cities struggle with steep budget cuts.

The plan, which follows a similar policy issued in 2003 to ensure municipalities comply with the federal Clean Water Act, would require towns and cities to remove illegal sewage connections to storm drains, improve street sweeping, and increase public education and other steps to cut the amount of stormwater entering sewer systems.

The goal is to reduce elevated levels of phosphorus, nitrogen, metals, sediment, disease-causing bacteria, and other pollutants carried by stormwater into rivers, including the Charles, Mystic, Neponset, Shawsheen, and other state waters.

Curt Spalding, regional administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s New England office, said the new requirements “will have tangible benefits for these communities. Controlling pollution from stormwater will mean fewer days that beaches and shellfish beds are closed due to high bacteria levels, and a healthier environment for everybody to enjoy.’’

Environment officials said the new plan would require municipalities to monitor what flows from their pipes into local water sources, during dry and wet weather; inspect key manholes within five years to ensure they are not spreading pollutants; and draft plans to detect and deal with illicit pollution within one year.

It also would require some communities and encourage others to make their buildings and drainage systems more environmentally friendly.

Municipalities now spend on average $94,000 a year to comply with existing federal regulations to control stormwater runoff, environment officials said. The new plan would add about $20,000 to $70,000 for municipalities, they said.

Geoffrey Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, said the regulations may be well intentioned, but he wondered how communities would pay for it without slashing other services or increasing local taxes.

“While we haven’t had a chance to review the new regulations, there has been a great concern regarding federal efforts to mandate extraordinarily costly burdens on local governments, and therefore on local taxpayers,’’ he said.

State lawmakers recently formed a commission to look at the costs of complying with federal stormwater runoff requirements and hoped it might find a way to blunt the costs, he said.

In Worcester, where federal officials issued similar regulations last year, city officials are contesting the requirements, which they say will cost more than $1 billion over time.

“The new requirements are overly expensive and very difficult to comply with,’’ said Bob Moylan, commissioner of public works in Worcester. “Before, the idea was for us to do our best to meet the spirit of the permit. Now there are numeric requirements to meet.’’

Environmental advocates, however, argue that the regulations are overdue and, if anything, allow municipalities too much time to comply.

“Certainly, this is a giant step in the right direction for the Charles River,’’ said Bob Zimmerman, executive director of the Charles River Watershed Association. “We wish the timelines for compliance were shorter, and in our mind, they could be accelerated. But this will do a lot to improve the quality of the river.’’

EPA officials noted that the previous regulations have had a substantial impact on improving water quality. For example, they noted that in 1995 the Charles River’s water quality met swimming standards only 19 percent of the time and boating standards 39 percent of the time. In 2008, the river met swimming standards 50 percent of the time and boating standards more than 90 percent of the time.

“The regulations removed the disease-causing bacteria in stormwater sewage and improved public education,’’ said David Webster, chief of the industrial permits branch of the EPA’s New England office. “People now know storm drains are not trash cans.’’

The proposed regulations would cover publicly owned stormwater systems in urban areas, mostly in the northeast part of the state, or those municipalities in the watersheds of the Charles, Neponset, and Shawsheen rivers. EPA officials said they plan to release new requirements for the rest of the state’s urban areas in the near future.

The Clean Water Act requires that the regulations are reevaluated every five years to ensure they continue to protect area waters.

EPA officials plan to hold a public meeting on the draft regulations on March 18 in the Thomas P. O’Neill Federal Building in Boston. A public comment period will last until March 31, and the final regulations will be issued later this year.

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