Boiling point

Local officials complain about lack of funds for water cleanup

By Jessica VanderKolk, jvanderkolk@altoonamirror.com
HUNTINGDON — A handful of local officials testified Tuesday about the exorbitant costs residents face in the wake of the state’s obligation to a Chesapeake Bay Watershed cleanup agreement.

They joined state and bay officials for a state House Republican Policy Committee hearing on the issue at Juniata College.

The hearing was a chance to discuss Pennsylvania’s compliance with a federal cleanup mandate under the Clean Water Act, along with Delaware, Maryland, New York, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Local officials’ main complaint is that the state has not provided enough funding assistance to municipalities, which must upgrade wastewater treatment facilities and address farm practices to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.

The watershed states, including Pennsylvania, are committed to help remove the bay from the federal list of impaired waters by 2010.

Pennsylvania’s cost will be $620 million, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection’s ‘‘best available estimate,’’ which assumes all wastewater treatment facilities will be upgraded.

Tyrone and Huntingdon are the first local municipalities in their respective counties to begin upgrades.

Huntingdon Borough Manager Kenneth Myers estimated his plant upgrade at $19.5 million, which translates to an 87 percent increase in the average customer’s monthly sewer bill, from $22 to $41.

‘‘Huntingdon has many low-income and elderly customers with limited incomes that will struggle with higher monthly bills,’’ Myers said. ‘‘A significant increase in their monthly sewer bill is the last thing they need, with escalating gasoline and heating fuel costs and electric rate deregulation just around the corner.”

The DEP is offering municipalities a nutrient trading program as an alternative — something DEP North Central Regional Director Robert Yowell said would be more cost-effective in some cases. Facilities that reduce nutrients beyond compliance can sell credits to other facilities, which then can put off more costly upgrades.

Lawmakers at the hearing criticized the program, saying it is not yet viable and won’t help most facilities facing increased sewer rates today.

‘‘Until recently, we hadn’t issued the actual permits to sewage treatment plants,’’ Yowell said. ‘‘We had to set up the system.”

State Rep. Jerry Stern, R-Martinsburg, said the DEP should focus on nonpoint sources of pollution, such as farm runoff, and pointed to the Cove Area Regional Digester, a manure collection facility that will reduce polluting nutrients.

‘‘It makes all the sense in the world to invest in projects like that,” Stern said. ‘‘Rather than look at point sources, we need to be thinking outside the box.”

Yowell said 86 percent of Pennsylvania’s pollution comed from nonpoint sources, with 14 percent from point sources, such as wastewater treatment plants.

Last year, Stern helped initiate the Resource Enhancement and Protection Act to provide tax credits to farmers to reduce nutrients and engage in other best management practices.

The program’s $10 million in state funding was distributed among 55 counties in 10 days.

Bay officials would like to see about five times that much, but Gov. Ed Rendell’s 2008-09 budget proposal does not reflect an increase for the program.

‘‘In light of the lack of funding to municipalities, it could be best to invest up to that amount to comply with the [state’s Chesapeake Bay] Tributary Strategy,’’ Stern said.