Quality at a cost: Stormwater rates go up to fend off expected fed fines

Chattanoogans have paid more than $80 million in stormwater fees over the past 16 years, but state and federal regulators say the city is still awash in pollution problems from rainwater runoff.

After more than a decade of deficiencies spanning the terms of three Chattanooga mayors, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are preparing to order Chattanooga to spend far more on stormwater maintenance, inspection and facilities.

"Scrutiny, both at the state and federal level, has been increasing, and now it's our turn," Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield said. "We know many other cities that have been hit heavily by fines and far more demanding and aggressive consent orders."

Chattanooga Public Works officials are trying to lessen any regulatory blow with a five-year, $125 million plan to upgrade the way rainwater runs off thousands of buildings, homes and parking lots across the 650-square-mile city.

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, urged EPA to be cautious before imposing costly penalties on the city.

"Chattanooga is taking a substantial, serious step toward bringing its stormwater system into compliance with Clean Water Act standards," Sen. Alexander said. "I hope EPA will look at the city's plan and consider how quickly it is moving before assessing a $50 million fine that won't do anything to clean the water faster."

Many of those who must shoulder the extra expense of the expanded program want the city to take a slower approach.

Delores Kennedy said she was shocked when the stormwater bill at her Lee Highway mobile home park jumped from $1,325 to $5,299.

"How are small businesses supposed to cope with this?" she asked the mayor at one of several meetings city officials have held with residents upset by the increases.

Problem bubbles up

Regulators say the needed fixes in the city's stormwater program are long overdue.

Four years ago, the state first cited Chattanooga for a list of 23 deficiencies. An inspection in September 2008 identified 57 violations of the city's stormwater permit, according to a notice of violation issued in June 2009.

Before last month, the city never had raised the stormwater fees it adopted in 1993.

"There was a lack of compliance in 2005 and a severe lack of compliance now," Patrick Parker, chief of enforcement for water quality for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, told the Chattanooga City Council last week.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has pledged to strengthen enforcement of clean water standards.

"The level of significant noncompliance with permitting requirements is unacceptably high, and the level of enforcement activity is unacceptably low," Ms. Jackson said in a speech last week marking the 37th anniversary of the Clean Water Act.

Renee Hoyos, executive director of Tennessee Clean Water Network, said Friday there the Obama administration is more active with enforcement. The Bush and Clinton administrations fell short on getting municipalities into compliance, she said.

"It's too bad Chattanooga waited until the ninth hour," Ms. Jackson said. "If they hadn't waited, the fees would have been a lot less."

Expanded scope of interest

Increasingly, regulators are reaching beyond single-source polluters and focusing on the runoff from across the city. David Reece, a consulting engineer for the city, told the City Council last week that runoff from parking lots, rooftops and other developed properties adds silt, oil, pesticides and other contaminants to the water and accounts for nearly 85 percent of the pollution in rivers and streams.

Mr. Reece developed a plan for the city to expand its staff, boost inspections and invest more than $11 million a year in new infrastructure to comply with the requirements of the city's 13-year-old stormwater permit.

The new program is more than twice as expensive as what the city was spending on its stormwater plan. It also will make the program self-sufficient again after a decade of subsidizing the operation with general funds from the city budget.

Jerry Stewart, the city's director of wastewater resources, said an indirect program that helped water quality occurred in the 1990s when the city spent $40 million on a 10-year program separating combined sewers from the municipal separate storm sewer system. The effort decreased the amount of combined sewers in the downtown area that could cause overflows, he said.

Those improvements were paid for through sewer fees, officials said.

City Engineer Bill Payne said in the past few years the only capital improvement project completed with stormwater fees was the purchase of a piece of property off Hickory Valley Road for flood control.

Moving money around

Since the mid-90s, Public Works officials admitted that millions of dollars have been spent from the general fund and the road pavement fund to help subsidize the water quality program. Most of it has been in operational costs, Mr. Payne said.

For the fiscal 2010-11 budget, the new stormwater fees are projected to free up about $3 million from the city budget for other purposes, mayoral Chief of Staff Dan Johnson said.

To fund the stormwater upgrades, the city tripled its stormwater fees on residential properties from $36 to $115.50 a year. Many businesses and churches with large parking lots face even bigger increases.

"In my 31 years in this field, I've never seen a regulation reduced or lessened," Mr. Reece said. "The facts are that cities are having to do more than they did in the past."

Chattanooga City Council members voted unanimously in October to impose the higher fees. But after hearing protests from many business owners, some council members wonder if the city should take a more cautious approach.

"This is a tremendously onerous situation, and unfortunately it comes at a terrible time," City Councilwoman Deborah Scott said. "Are these regulations at all negotiable?"

City Councilwoman Sally Robinson also questioned whether the city could take more time and spend less money each year on the stormwater improvements.

"Is there any way to phase this is in so it's not such a burden?" she asked.

Mayor Littlefield insists the city is doing what it must. Although most of the money raised by the higher stormwater fees will go to pay for engineering, inspections and administration, Mr. Littlefield said the city must comply with its permit requirements.

"It is a very demanding science we are dealing with here," he said. "We have to do a better job of sampling and documenting our work just like we are preparing a case in court, because frequently we are."

"Misery loves company"

Indeed, the city could end up in court if it follows the lead of other Southern cities sued by regulators and environmental groups over Clean Water violations.

During a meeting among city officials, regulators and the public last week, Roger Tudor of the Associated General Contractors of East Tennessee appealed to state regulators to give the city more time to comply with all of the water quality standards.

Robert Karesh, director of Tennessee's stormwater program, said state regulators are willing to work with municipalities to address stormwater problems. But he said TDEC must comply with federal law.

"I think we have been flexible with the city to this point," he said.

Mr. Parker said state and federal regulators "are already several steps up the enforcement ladder."

In response to local concerns, U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a former Chattanooga mayor, asked regulators last week about the status of any enforcement actions pending against the city.

Mr. Littlefield noted that both Knoxville and Nashville have had to make even more expensive upgrades of their sewer systems under regulatory agreements reached in the past three years. Across the Southeast over the past five years, EPA has entered into consent agreements with at least 10 cities to collectively make up to $8 billion of improvements to substandard sanitary and storm sewer systems.

"If misery loves company, there is plenty of other company," he said.

PDF: Revision of the water quality fee presentation

PDF: Water quality credit program presentation

WHERE THE FEES WILL GO

Stormwater fees will pay for new capital improvements projects, record keeping for federal regulators, at least two more crews to help with preventive maintenance and technology that will help with mapping the entire drainage area of the city.

They also will go to help the city buy property along stream banks and restore streams in those areas. The money will also be used for repairing drainage ditches and culverts and educating the public about water quality.

Source: Chattanooga Public Works