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Stormwater group might change

Inter­govern­mental Stormwater Committee cannot borrow money; might become authority

Mirror file photo by William Kibler / About 30 fourth-graders from Holy Trinity Catholic School, Altoona Campus, along with several teachers, employees of the Blair County Conservation District and Stiffler McGraw engineers, planted this rain garden last year at the elementary school, formerly known as St. Therese of the Child Jesus School.

At a meeting of the Inter­govern­mental Stormwater Committee on Thursday, officials agreed that it is premature to consider Environmental Impact Bonds, a new means of financing the kind of “green infrastructure” projects — designed to keep stormwater pollution out of local streams and the bay — the kind the committee was created to build.

The committee’s Pollution Reduction Plan is under review by the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the committee not only doesn’t know which projects will be approved, it hasn’t yet estimated costs for any of them, according to Marla Marcinko, a committee member from Altoona, one of 11 member municipalities.

Still, when it comes time to find the money for approved projects, organizational change may be necessary, because as a council of governments, the committee lacks the power to borrow, according to Marcinko.

By contrast, a municipal authority would be able to borrow, she said.

The committee cannot simply transform itself, however, into an authority. That would need to happen through a rigorous process that the municipalities themselves would undertake, working together, according to Marcinko and Donna Fisher, manager of the Blair County Conservation District and committee staffer.

The Environmental Impact Bonds could be an important funding mechanism because stormwater projects — green infrastructure like vegetated trenches, green roofs and rain gardens — can be hard to finance, being viewed by some investors as risky, according to the foundation.

Traditional infrastructure investment in Pennsylvania is frequently funded by Pennvest, but Pennvest so far has funded stormwater projects sparingly — providing money for only 153 out of a total of more than 2,800, according to a Penn Future web page, Funding Stormwater Improvements.

A multi-municipal authority to serve the IGSC territory would have the ability not only to borrow but to enact user fees to fund stormwater programs, according to online information.

Nationwide, 80 percent of stormwater “utilities” levy those user fees based on Equivalent Service Units, which are charges proportional to the impervious area of properties — parking lots, roofs, etc., according to Funding Stormwater Programs, published by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

A major advantage of Equivalent Service Units is that those who cause the problem are the ones who pay, according to EPA and Penn Future.

The IGSC can accept grants, but grants are generally competitive and one-time, and are hardly a sustainable source of funding, according to Penn Future.

Councils of government — the IGSC is one of those — can impose user fees, provided they relate to the direct and indirect cost of the service, according to the Department of Community and Economic Development and the Pa. Council of Government Association.

In the run up to creation of the IGSC in August 2016 from its precursor, Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Program (MS4) Work Group, there was talk about the eventual likelihood of creating an authority.

Two members of Altoona City Council — Mayor Matt Pacifico and Michael Haire — cast dissenting votes when the city joined the IGSC, saying it would be better to create an authority right away, the better to handle the increasing municipal responsibility to keep runoff pollutants from the streams.

Municipalities seeking to form an authority must follow procedures in the Municipal Authorities Act, according to Penn Future.

They include a public notice declaring intent, a public hearing, resolutions or ordinances establishing that intent, further public notice, filing of articles of incorporation with the Secretary of the Commonwealth, execution of those articles by each municipality and endorsement of those articles by the Secretary of the Commonwealth, according to Penn Future.

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