Legislative Policies for the 2007 Oregon Legislative Session

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City of Eugene Legislative Policies for 2007 Oregon Legislative Session City of Eugene Legislative Policies for 2007 Oregon Legislative Session B. WATER AND ENDANGERED SPECIESlHABITAT Quality Study, and will continue to support related efforts such as the McKenzie River 61. Water Quality Watershed Council and the Long Tom Watershed Council. B1a, DEQ Permit FeeslWater Quality Program Funding B1d. Innovative Approaches to Water Quality Management The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, (DEQ) issues National Pollution Significant future progress in solving the State's remaining water quality problems will Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) and Water Pollution Control Facility permits. require innovative solutions that go beyond the traditional "command and control" permit Permit fees include an application fee and an annual permit maintenance fee. approaches.. Solutions such as watershed management, pollution prevention, and pollution trading will require developing partnerships and incentives to achieve effective The City opposes any effort to increase reliance on fees from local government to support improvements to water quality. Strict liability and regulatory requirements currently do not statewide programs, believing that statewide water quality programs should be funded .allow the implementation of these flexible approaches. The City supports legislative and from the State General Fund. Permit and other fees should be based only upon the actual regulatory initiatives to facilitate development of new approaches to water quality cost of issuing and administering the permits for the different permittees. The distribution management, such as effluent trading and "green" permits. of the costs should not result in one class of permittees subsidizing another class (large vs. small permittees or municipal vs. industrial permittees). The State should provide a clear B1e. Water Quality Standards accounting of the basis for any permit fees and of the allocation of fee revenue to permit The City opposes any efforts to change State water quality standards through the program activities. The City also believes more attention and resources should be focused .legislative process. The DEQ has established a comprehensive process for evaluating on the current backlog of expired NPDES permits, The City further encourages the State current water quality standards and proposing new or changed standards which involves to define the responsibility of non-point sources in the funding strategy for water quality all stakeholders as well as recognized technical experts. This process, followed by program support. opportunities for the public to comment, has led to the Environmental Quality Commission adopting changes to several water quality standards. Future changes to water quality Local governments are required to establish fair and equitable user charges to sewage standards, including beneficial use designations, should be obtained through a similar system customers; a similar level of accountability should be incorporated into the DEQ's collaborative process, and not achieved through legislative action. permit fee structure. Recomendation B1 b. stormwater ~ Supportlegislation orregulations that will improve waterqualityand decrease The City is committed to addressing stormwater pollution. The City has developed a pollution. comprehensive stormwater management plan, and has applied for and received an NPDES permit for municipal stormwater discharges. The City believes that additional B1f. DEQ Oversight of Undennrater Injection Control requirements for stormwater control should only be implemented following evaluation and The City urges the legislature to maintain funding for DEQ's statewide oversight of documentation of the effectiveness of the management practices in the existing plan, and Underwater Injection Control, or dry wells. Local governments receive the best level of of the continuing need for water quality improvements. The City supports the use of service, fairness and flexibility by working with a State agency. Turning this oversight ovr- resources to coordinate municipal urban stormwater permitting activities between the to federal agencies could result in a reduced level ofservice/communication, delays, ,jnd regions of the state, including establishing procedures for storage and analysis of inflexibility with regard local management and operation of Underwater Injection CantrciL statewide stormwater monitoring data. B2. Pollution Source Equity The City has established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the DEQ to .Since Congressional passage of the Clean WaterAct (CWA) in 1972, cities and industries administer portions of the department's obligations under the industrial stormwater .which discharge effluent from a "point source" have been under EPAjurisdiction, Authority program within the City limits. Included in the MOU is acost-sharing formula for the permit to discharge-from a point source (for example, a sewage treatment plant) requires e fees associated with the program. The City is interested in exploring additional innovative National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. (NPDES) Permit. partnership agreements with the state and local agencies for the effective implementation of the stormwater regulations. Although this focus on point sources has significantly improved the nation's water quality, substantial water pollution continues to result from unregulated "non-point" sources (i.e., 61 c. Non-Point Sources water pollutants with diffuse origins). In its re-authorization of the CWA in 198T, oncfre5s National and state water quality monitoring data indicates that non-point sources addressed part of this problem by requiring cities and certain industries to treat stormwater contribute most of the remaining pollution to surface waters. The City contributed to and run-off through a series of "best practices." The 1987 language called for implementation supports the Willamette River Basin Water Quality Study which identifies non-point source in two phases based on city population.. Phase I called for citieswith a population of pollution in the Willamette Basin. The City believes that non-point sources must be 100,000 or more to obtain NPDES stormwater permits. By 1995, all Phase I communities considered and included when water quality management plans are developed in the in Oregon had received their NPDES permit. The EPA is now moving into Phase II, which Willamette Basin. The City supports the continued use of State resources to fund requires all cities with a population exceeding 50,000 to obtain stormwater permits. the comprehensive basin studies of water quality, such as the Willamette River Basin Water 36 37