HB 0627

This bill requires municipalities with wastewater treatment plants to allocate portions of the plant's headworks loading limit to pretreatment facilities that discharge wastewater to the treatment plant. A pretreatment facility may receive and trade credits representing quantifiable and permanent reductions in the discharge of pollutants by the pretreatment facility from its allocation. This bill also requires pollutant reductions by publicly-owned treatment works and establishes a committee to study methods for reducing water pollutants.

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Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

1 New Section; Public Health; Sewers; Toxics Trading Program. Amend RSA 149-I by inserting after section 6 the following new section:

I. In this section, "headworks loading limit" means the maximum allowable concentration of pollutants at that portion of the wastewater treatment plant which first receives the total influent flow for initial treatment.

II. Ordinances and bylaws adopted pursuant to RSA 149-I:6 shall allocate portions of the wastewater treatment plant's headworks loading limit to each pretreatment facility that discharges wastewater to the treatment plant. Each allocation shall be expressed in units, which shall be determined by the municipality in the ordinances and bylaws and approved by the department of environmental services. Each unit allocated shall be for a single pollutant only, and shall entitle the facility to discharge that amount of the pollutant to the treatment plant; a unit allocated for a pollutant may not be converted into a unit for another pollutant.

III.(a) If a facility presents appropriate proof, consistent with any requirements contained in the ordinances and bylaws, that it has not utilized and will not be utilizing any one of the units which it has been allocated, the municipality shall issue a credit certificate for the unutilized unit to the facility. Such credits shall be issued only to facilities demonstrating quantifiable and permanent reductions in discharge of the applicable pollutant. The credit shall be certified for use on a calendar year basis.

(b) A facility may transfer a credit certificate to another facility discharging to the treatment plant. Unless otherwise restricted by state or federal law, the transferee may increase its discharge of the applicable pollutant by 0.9 times the number of units it has acquired for that pollutant for that year. Any unit or portion of a unit that is not utilized by a transferee facility shall be retired, and may not be allocated or reissued by the municipality.

(c) If any facility permanently ceases discharging wastewater to the treatment plant, all units allocated to the facility shall revert to the municipality, and the municipality may reallocate the units to new or existing pretreatment facilities.

2 New Subparagraphs; Duties of Department; Pretreatment Standards; Considerations. Amend RSA 485-A:4, XV by inserting after subparagraph (d) the following new subparagraphs:

(e) The trading of pollutant credits between facilities that discharge waste to the same wastewater treatment plant, as provided in RSA 149-I:6-a.

3 New Paragraph; Pretreatment Standards; Headworks Loading Limit. Amend RSA 485-A:5 by inserting after paragraph III the following new paragraph:

III-a. No municipality or other governmental entity owning or controlling any public sewage or wastewater treatment facility shall allocate or accept for treatment more than 75 percent of the headworks loading limit of the facility for each pollutant regulated. For purposes of this paragraph, "headworks loading limit" means the maximum allowable concentration of pollutants at that portion of the wastewater treatment facility which first receives the total influent flow for initial treatment. In determining the headworks loading limit, it shall be presumed that any sludge produced by the facility shall meet the maximum contaminant levels established by the department for land application in the state.

4 New Section; Winnipesaukee River Basin Control; Pollutant Trading Program. Amend RSA 485-A by inserting after section 48 the following new section:

485-A:48-a Pollutant Trading Program. Rules of the department adopted under this subdivision shall conform to the requirements for ordinances and bylaws established in RSA 149-I:6-a relative to a pollutant trading program.

I. There is established a committee to study methods for reducing water pollutants.

(1) Three members of the house of representatives, appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives.

(b) Members of the committee shall receive mileage at the legislative rate when attending to the duties of the committee.

(a) Study the feasibility and the economic and environmental benefits of allowing pollutant credit trading between facilities discharging into the same watershed, but not served by a common wastewater treatment plant.

(b) Study methods of reducing the amount of pollutants received by wastewater treatment plants and levels to which each regulated pollutant should be reduced.

IV. Chairperson; Quorum. The members of the study committee shall elect a chairperson from among the members. The first meeting of the committee shall be called by the first-named house member. The first meeting of the committee shall be held within 45 days of the effective date of this section. Four members of the committee shall constitute a quorum.

V. Report. The committee shall report its findings and any recommendations for proposed legislation to the speaker of the house of representatives, the senate president, the house clerk, the senate clerk, the governor, and the state library on or before November 1, 2001.

The Department of Environmental Services indicates this bill will increase state general fund and local expenditures by $56,304 and $969,200 in FY 2002, $57,123 and $912,660 in FY 2003, $59,595 and $958,292 in FY 2004 and $62,201 and $1,006,208 in FY 2005. Local revenue may increase by an indeterminable amount beginning in FY 2002 and continuing each year thereafter. There will be no fiscal impact to state and county revenue or county expenditures.

State Fiscal Impact:

The Department states it will hire one staff member to track, administer and approve the program for each community. The position will be an Environmentalist IV, labor grade 26.

FY 2002 FY 2003 FY 2004 FY 2005

Salary $38,610 $40,365 $42,159 $44,050

Benefits @ 32% 12,355 12,917 13,491 14,096

Current Expenses 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,500

COLA 2,239 2,341 2,445 2,555

Computer Equipment 1,600 0 0 0

Total $56,304 $57,123 $59,595 $62,201

Local Fiscal Impact:

The Department could not estimate the amount of revenue towns would receive, since the amount will depend on the procedures each town will adopt.

When estimating local expenditures the Department used the following assumptions:

· Of the approximately 60 municipalities, 20 will have an average of 5 industries with tradable pollutants.

· Sampling, analysis and related headwork loading will be established annually to ensure accurate certification.

· Headworks loadings will have to be approved by the EPA and the Department.

FY 2002 FY 2003 FY 2004 FY 2005

Headworks Loading Analysis $645,000 $677,250 $711,112 $ 746,668

Reports, Meetings, and

Public Notice 175,200 183,960 193,158 202,816

Monitoring - Sample & Test 49,000 51,450 54,022 56,724

Sampler 100,000 0 0 0

Total $969,200 $912,660 $958,292 $1,006,208

In addition, the Department is unable to predict the loss of industrial expansion, taxes and jobs.