Fy2006 Annual Fee Report and Assessment of Fees
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
NEW JERSEY POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM FY2006 ANNUAL FEE REPORT AND ASSESSMENT OF FEES PROPOSAL DOCUMENT NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION COMMISSIONER BRADLEY M. CAMPBELL TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 FY2006 Budget Proposal for the NJPDES Program 1 FY2006 NJPDES Fee Assessment Methodology 3 FY2006 Adjustments/Corrections to Minimum Fee Schedule 3 FY2006 Proposed NJPDES Fee Schedules and Rates 6 FY2005 and FY2004 Actual Costs and Expenditures, Revenue Collections 6 Delinquent Fee Collections 8 NJPDES Permit Program Significant Activities & Accomplishments 10 Enforcement Activities 15 APPENDICES A - NJPDES Regulations - N.J.A.C. 7:14A-3.1 16 B - NJPDES Program Work Plans 34 C - FY2006 NJPDES/ Water Pollution Control Program Budgets 41 D - FY2006 Fee Rate Calculation Information 45 E - FY2006 Fee Schedules 48 FEE SCHEDULES (Billing Category) Municipal Surface Water (MSW) 49 Industrial Surface Water (ISW) 55 Significant Indirect Users (SIU) 64 Residuals (RES) 68 Nonpoint Pollution Control - Municipal (MGW) & Industrial (IGW) Ground Water 71 Nonpoint Pollution Control - Operating Landfills (OLF) 87 Nonpoint Pollution Control - Stormwater (STW) 90 Nonpoint Pollution Control - FY2006 Stormwater Permits Fee Schedule Summary 122 Billing Change of Address Form 123 INTRODUCTION The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection ("Department") is responsible for administering the New Jersey Pollutant Discharge Elimination System ("NJPDES") program that regulates the discharge of pollutants to the surface and ground waters of the State. The Department's authority is derived from the New Jersey Water Pollution Control Act, N.J.S.A. 58:10A-1 et seq. ("State Act"), pursuant to which New Jersey qualifies for and has primary responsibility under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.) for the administration of the NJPDES permitting program. The NJPDES program rules are set forth at N.J.A.C. 7:14A. All persons who wish to discharge wastewater in the State are required to obtain a NJPDES discharge permit from the Department. Pursuant to Section 9 of the State Act, the Department is authorized to "establish and charge reasonable annual administrative fees, which fees shall be based upon, and shall not exceed, the estimated cost of processing, monitoring and administering the NJPDES permits." Fees are assessed to cover the Department's costs to issue and manage NJPDES permits. The NJPDES budget and fee schedule covers activities including the review of NJPDES permit applications, the development of specific permit terms and conditions including wasteload allocations, water quality based effluent limitations, stream monitoring and modeling, conducting compliance and 24-hour sampling inspections, ground water compliance sampling, supervising the installation of ground water monitoring wells, evaluating and approving ground water remediation alternatives, evaluating compliance with the terms and conditions of each NJPDES permit, and providing for the general administrative costs of the NJPDES program including regulatory support, data processing, and budgeting. N.J.S.A. 58:10A-10 provides the Department with the authority to seek civil administrative penalties for failure to pay assessed NJPDES permit fees. FY 2006 NJPDES BUDGET PROPOSAL The NJPDES program encompasses the developing, issuing, monitoring, administering and enforcement of NJPDES permits. The Department has historically used State appropriations, and Clean Water Enforcement Act (CWEA) penalties, to fund those activities which have been deemed outside the scope of the NJPDES fee program. However, since July 1, 1995, all Department fee programs are "on budget". This results in the NJPDES and Clean Water Enforcement programs receiving state appropriations each budget cycle. Fees and penalties collected are deposited directly to the General Fund within the Department of Treasury. The Department has presented the total cost for the Water Pollution Control Program as it pertains to NJPDES permitted facilities in the work plans and budget presented in Appendix B and C, respectively. The total costs for program activities are $20.8 million, a decrease of $0.2 million from the previous budget year. The portion of the NJPDES permit program which needs to be funded through NJPDES permit fees in FY2006 is $18.3 million, including the Stormwater Permitting Program. For nine consecutive years through FY2002 the Department held the total NJPDES fee assessments, excluding Stormwater Permitting, at $11.2 million or less. In light of State budget constraints this was no longer possible. Starting in FY2003, the Department began to recover a greater percentage of its billable NJPDES program costs through fee revenues. In FY2003 the amount assessed was increased to $13.6 million (87% of the $15.6 million budget). In FY2004 the amount assessed was increased to $15.6 million (96% of the $16.3 million budget). In FY2005 the amount assessed was increased to $17.7 million (100% of the $17.7 million budget). This year the Department will be assessing $13.2 million of the total budget as fees for the non-stormwater permitting portion of the program. Additionally, the fees to be assessed for the Stormwater Permitting Program are projected to be $5.1 million. This amounts to a total assessment of $18.3 million (100 % of the $18.3 million budget). The NJPDES fees for FY2006 cover the period July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006. There are no changes to the minimum fee schedule this year (see page 3). 1 FY2006 WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ACT- BUDGET SUMMARY ENFORCEMENT NJPDES TOTAL WATER SERVICES SERVICES POLLUTION BUDGET BUDGET CONTROL (CWEA) PROGRAM TOTAL WORK-YEARS 26.06 193.50 219.56 TOTAL PERSONNEL COSTS $2,297,182 $17,056,971 $19,354,152 TOTAL OPERATING COSTS $165,889 $1,277,849 $1,443,739 TOTAL PROGRAM COSTS $2,463,071 $18,334,820 $20,797,891 The FY2006 Water Pollution Control Program Budget will provide funding for a total of 219.56 work years. This represents an decrease of 7.04 work years (mostly associated with a reallocation of resources to other areas of the Enforcement Program) from the previous budget cycle, or a 3.1% decrease. The NJPDES portion of the Water Pollution Control Program budget is expected to cover the costs of 193.5 professional and support staff positions assigned to the NJPDES program. This included 137.28 work years assigned to the Division of Water Quality, 33.72 assigned to the Water Compliance and Enforcement Element and 22.50 to other DEP units. An additional 26.06 work years will be funded from the Enforcement Water Pollution Control Appropriation. These 26.06 positions are assigned to the NJPDES Program for performance of additional NJPDES related functions and activities that historically have been deemed outside the scope of the NJPDES Fee Program. The Department has included detailed workplans for the various program categories in Appendix B. The expected outputs for FY2006 are based upon current staffing. Program activities and accomplishments are presented on page 10. COMPARISON OF NJPDES STAFFING LEVELS BUDGET CATEGORY FY2003 FY2004 FY2005 FY2006 MUNICIPAL 46.22 48.15 49.77 51.92 INDUSTRIAL 36.50 36.42 40.59 41.08 GROUNDWATER/STORMWATER 48.12 49.72 59.41 62.88 SIGNIFICANT INDIRECT USER 2.93 2.97 3.48 3.90 Enforcement-NJPDES funded 38.33 35.90 36.83 33.72 NJPDES PROGRAM 172.10 173.16 190.08 193.50 Enforcement-CWEA funded 31.39 31.37 36.52 26.06 TOTAL 203.49 204.53 226.60 219.56 The current average salary cost for each position in the NJPDES program is $52,613. The average salary cost for FY2006 has been determined based upon the anticipated salary costs as of January 1, 2006 and includes annual merit increases and promotions. The fringe benefit rate of 32.75 percent has been established by the Department of Treasury in its current OMB Circular Letter. The indirect rate of 26.21 percent, of salary plus fringe, has been established by the Department of Environmental Protection for FY2006. The Total Budget decreased from $21.0 million in FY2005 to $20.8 million in FY2006 mainly due to a slight reallocation of Enforcement resources from NJPDES to other program areas. The Department has included $1.4 million for non-salary costs. This is $0.03 million less than the previous year. Routine operational costs for office supplies, printing, copiers, telephones, postage, vehicle rental and maintenance, legal advertising and professional services total $1.1 million. Other major operational costs include the following: Division of Law and Public Safety and Office of Administrative Law - A total of $318,403 has been included in the NJPDES/Enforcement-Water Pollution Control program budget to cover the legal 2 assistance provided by the Division of Law and Public Safety and the Office of Administrative Law. Activities to be funded include permit adjudication, general legal assistance for rule making, and enforcement action adjudication. The Clean Water Enforcement Act provides a cost recovery mechanism for unsuccessful challenges to the Department's enforcement actions. The Department must also cover the costs incurred by the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) for any permit or enforcement cases which are sent to the OAL for processing. Although many cases are settled without a hearing, the OAL still incurs costs to process these cases. Office of Telecommunication and Information Systems (OTIS) - A total of $52,448 has been included for OTIS in the NJPDES/Enforcement Water Pollution Control program budget for FY2006 to cover the cost of computer system operational support. FY2006 NJPDES FEE ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY The Department first established a fee assessment program in 1981. Individual permit fees were based on the facility's potential environmental impact, the billing rate for the category of discharge, and the minimum fee for the category of discharge. The billing rate for each category of discharge is determined annually by subtracting the total minimum fees paid by the permittees in the category of discharge from the total budget for the category of discharge, and then dividing that value by the sum of the calculated environmental impact potentials for all of the dischargers within the category.