Fy2008 Annual Fee Report and Assessment of Fees
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NEW JERSEY POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM FY2008 ANNUAL FEE REPORT AND ASSESSMENT OF FEES PROPOSAL DOCUMENT NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION COMMISSIONER LISA P. JACKSON TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 FY2008 Budget Proposal for the NJPDES Program 1 FY2008 NJPDES Fee Assessment Methodology 3 FY2008 Adjustments/Corrections to Minimum Fee Schedule 3 FY2008 Proposed NJPDES Fee Schedules and Rates 6 FY2007 and FY2006 Actual Costs and Expenditures, Revenue Collections 6 Delinquent Fee Collections 9 NJPDES Permit Program Significant Activities & Accomplishments 10 Enforcement Activities 16 APPENDICES A - NJPDES Regulations - N.J.A.C. 7:14A-3.1 17 B - NJPDES Program Work Plans 35 C - FY2008 NJPDES/Water Pollution Control Program Budgets 42 D - FY2008 Fee Rate Calculation Information 46 E - FY2008 Fee Schedules 49 FEE SCHEDULES (Billing Category) Municipal Surface Water (MSW) 50 Industrial Surface Water (ISW) 56 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 Billing Change of Address Form 124 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 2008 NJPDES BUDGET PROPOSAL The NJPDES Program encompasses both permitting and enforcement activities. Permitting activities include developing, issuing, monitoring and administering NJPDES permits. Enforcement activities include inspections and, when appropriate, follow up activities to gain permit compliance. The total Water Pollution Control (WPC) budget consists of the NJPDES and Enforcement Services budgets that are funded by State appropriations given at the start of the State fiscal year. The Department assesses permit fees to cover 100% of the NJPDES Services budget and all fees collected are deposited directly into the General Fund within the Department of the Treasury. Similarly, all penalties collected are also deposited into the General Fund. The total costs for the WPC as it pertains to NJPDES permitted facilities in the work plan and budget are presented in Appendix B and C respectively. For fiscal year (FY) 2008, the total costs for program activities are $24.8 million, an increase of $2.5 million from the previous budget year. The portion of the NJPDES program that needs to be funded through NJPDES permit fees in FY2008 is $21.6 million. The Department assessed $12.5 million of the total budget as fees for the Surface Water portion of the program; $0.5 million for the Significant Indirect User portion; $2.8 million for the Ground Water (including Landfills) portion; $0.2 million for the Residuals portion and $5.6 million for the for the Stormwater portion. This amounts to a total assessment of $21.6 million (100 percent of the $21.6 million budget). The NJPDES fees for FY2008 cover the period July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008. There are no changes to the minimum fee schedule this year. 1 FY2008 WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ACT- BUDGET SUMMARY ENFORCEMENT NJPDES TOTAL WATER SERVICES SERVICES POLLUTION BUDGET BUDGET CONTROL (CWEA) PROGRAM TOTAL WORK-YEARS 26.77 177.45 204.22 TOTAL PERSONNEL COSTS $3,031,152 $20,092,567 $23,123,718 TOTAL OPERATING COSTS $165,124 $1,540,416 $1,705,540 TOTAL PROGRAM COSTS $3,196,276 $21,632,983 $24,829,258 The FY2008 Water Pollution Control Program Budget will provide funding for a total of 204.22 work years. This represents a decrease of 11.69 work years from the previous budget cycle. The NJPDES portion of the Water Pollution Control Program budget is expected to cover the costs of 177.45 positions assigned to the NJPDES program. This includes 127.38 work years assigned to the Division of Water Quality, 28.57 assigned to the Water Compliance and Enforcement Element and 21.5 to other DEP units. An additional 26.77 work years will be funded from the Enforcement Water Pollution Control Appropriation. These 26.77 work years 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 FY2008 are based upon current staffing. COMPARISON OF NJPDES STAFFING LEVELS BUDGET CATEGORY FY2005 FY2006 FY2007 FY2008 MUNICIPAL 49.77 51.92 51.19 50.29 INDUSTRIAL 40.59 41.08 41.62 40.05 GROUNDWATER/STORMWATER 59.41 62.88 61.61 55.50 SIGNIFICANT INDIRECT USER 3.48 3.90 3.87 3.04 Enforcement-NJPDES funded 36.83 33.72 33.21 28.57 NJPDES PROGRAM 190.08 193.50 191.50 177.45 Enforcement-CWEA funded 36.52 26.06 24.41 26.77 TOTAL 226.60 219.56 215.91 204.22 The current average salary cost for each position in the NJPDES program is $70,695. The average salary cost for FY2008 has been determined based upon the anticipated salary costs as of January 1, 2008 and includes annual merit increases and promotions. The fringe benefit rate of 33.15 percent has been established by the Department of Treasury in its current OMB Circular Letter. The indirect rate of 20.29 percent, of salary plus fringe, has been established by the Department of Environmental Protection for FY2008. The Total Budget increased from $22.3 million in FY2007 to $24.8 million in FY2008 mainly due to increased salary costs. The Department has included $1.71 million for non-salary costs. This is an increase of $0.41 million over the previous year. Routine operational costs for office supplies, printing, copiers, telephones, postage, vehicle rental and maintenance, legal advertising and professional services total $1.32 million. Other major operational costs include the following: 2 Division of Law and Public Safety and Office of Administrative Law - A total of $358,422 has been included in the NJPDES/Enforcement-Water Pollution Control program budget to cover the legal assistance provided by the Division of Law and Public Safety and the Office of Administrative Law. Activities to be funded include those related to 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 Information Technology (OIT) - A total of $29,288 has been included for OIT in the NJPDES/Enforcement Water Pollution Control program budget for FY2008 to cover the cost of computer system operational support. FY2008 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. The fee schedule is assessed in accordance with current rules. A copy of the current fee regulations is included in Appendix A. This year the percentage of the NJPDES program budget derived from the assessment of minimum fees is 51% of the total program costs, which also includes fringe, indirect and operating costs. The remaining percentage of the NJPDES program costs will continue to be assessed in a manner proportionate to the relative environmental impact potential of the permittee's discharge, pursuant to the fee assessment formula at N.J.A.C. 7:14A-3.1(c) through (g).