Crescent-News.com - Mandates from EPA blasted by officials

By TODD HELBERG

cnedit@crescent-news.com

A meeting Thursday morning of the Maumee River Basin Partnership of Local Governments (MRBLGP) produced one certainty -- disdain for the Environmental Protection Agency.

MRBLGP is a group of Maumee River basin communities seeking ways to cope with expensive EPA mandates. Its meeting Thursday was hosted in Defiance City Hall and precedes six additional sessions this year, the next being in Fort Wayne on Feb. 21.

On hand Thursday were representatives of Ohio's two U.S. senators -- George Voinovich and Sherrod Brown -- as well as Ohio 1st District Sen. Steve Buehrer. Wes Fahrbach represented Voinovich's office while Jesse Gannon was Brown's representative.

The reason for their invitation was clear: to seek financial support in local communities' attempts to meet EPA mandates concerning water and wastewater upgrades.

They promised to do what they could, which was good news for officials from Paulding to Toledo and Fort Wayne to Bowling Green who attended the meeting.

Defiance Mayor Bob Armstrong noted that "all of us are for clean air and for clean water, we just want to make it affordable."

But according to Armstrong, the status quo won't allow that.

The city's EPA-mandated 20-year, $50 million effort to remove combined sewer overflows (CSOs), he said, could cause Defiance residents' sewer rates to climb from about $25 a month to $125 or more.

Smaller communities such as Florida, Armstrong reminded officials, face mandates that may be more expensive than the town's assessed value. In Florida's case, the mandate is $3.5 million, he said.

Armstrong and others want federal legislators to provide funding for EPA mandates or reign in the agency's unceasing rules.

Fahrbach said Voinovich is working on a bill that states "if the federal government is going to mandate" a project, then it should provide at least partial funding.

"I want you to know the senator understands the issue," said Fahrbach.

He urged community leaders to submit a few priorities for Voinovich's office to consider in dealing with the mandates rather than a long list of complaints.

Gannon added that Brown supports reviewing any legislation concerning mandates as well as a review of EPA rules "to make sure they are necessary."

Although state legislators don't have as much control over EPA mandates which are passed down from the federal level, Buehrer said it is a "rare week in which we don't get contacted" about their impact. "The way EPA has approached this ... it has not been very accommodating in giving communities time they need to bring financing together."

Buehrer wasn't the only one critical of EPA. Virtually all representatives in attendance had some pointed remarks.

"It would be nice just to have some (financial) help," said Perrysburg water pollution control superintendent Gary Haydel.

Some of the strongest concerns came from Archbold village administrator Dennis Howell.

His community doesn't face the combined sewer overflow removal mandate that is costing many communities millions, but is subject to what Howell described as EPA nitpicking about water quality.

"The regulatory process has come to be driven by the ability to detect things rather than common sense," said Howell, noting that technological advances have made new water testing possible. These, he added, usually mean "new regulations."

"We need better science," he concluded.

Howell added that acceptable levels for trihalomethanes in drinking water recently have dropped to even smaller amounts without showing that it "will save one life." Nevertheless, this has cost the nation $100-$150 billion, he explained.

Representatives from Hicksville, Continental and Ney said they are facing wastewater mandates that could tax residents to the breaking point.

Ney Mayor Tom Vance worries that a multimillion-dollar sewer project could drive residential sewer rates up to $70-$80 per month.

"That's really going to be tough on (residents) to make that up," he said, adding that under such scenarios Ney may eventually "look like a ghost town."

Costs associated with mandated projects don't tell the whole story, according to Napoleon city manager Jon Bisher.

His community faces a $33 million, 20-year EPA mandate to remove combined sewer overflows, but Bisher said this cost will more than double before the project is over.

"It's not a 20-year mandate, it's a 50-year mandate," he said. "In the 20th year we're going to be doing projects that are paid for in 30 years."

Add to the original cost expenses such as inflation, debt service and corollary projects -- like repairing streets torn up for CSO work -- and the final cost, Bisher said, will be more like $75 million.

"It's a sad story and it gets sadder," he said.

While may local officials would welcome federal funding help, others would like to see EPA reigned in.

Defiance At-large Councilman Steve Hubbard favored "controlling the uncontrollable EPA. Just throwing money (at the mandates) isn't the answer."

In any event, argued Howell, what EPA is seeking isn't possible. Agency officials speak of reaching a "zero risk" with these mandates, he noted, but "zero risk is not attainable."

Bisher added that the overarching federal legislation that made EPA's rules and regulations possible -- the Clean Water Act of 1972 -- "is not bad legislation." But he said how the agency interprets that legislation and its standards has "gotten out of control."

Ever-changing requirements were also a complaint aired.

Dennis Schnipke of the city of Lima, for example, noted that his community first received approval from Ohio EPA for its long-term wastewater control plan in 1998. But later the U.S. EPA said this "should not have been approved," he explained, requiring Lima to renegotiate with the federal agency.

Making things worse, Schnipke said, is that Lima's tax base is shrinking while tight finances have necessitated a hiring freeze for the municipality's safety service forces. Notwithstanding that, he said utility bills may "double" or "triple" before the EPA mandates are met.

Paulding Mayor Greg White said one problem is that EPA's "mindset" has changed -- from helpful to adversarial.

"The mindset of EPA used to be: 'You have a problem, we'll help you solve it,' " said White. "It's time to take a good look at how things are done at EPA."

For these reasons, Armstrong told the federal legislators' representatives that "we really need something to grab a hold of" and "we need to know how to support it. We want it to be something that's worked on. We would like some feedback from you to say, 'We heard what you said and here's what we're going to do with it.' "