Fishing for Savings

In Greene County, much like in other areas, environmental issues tend to run downhill.

Last week, a top federal regulator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency visited Missouri to address farmers’ concerns about a proposed rule EPA officials have said is designed to clarify the agency’s jurisdiction over streams, wetlands and other bodies of water.

On July 1, Springfield wastewater rates jumped 4 percent in another installment of the city’s seven-year, $50 million Early Action Plan to improve infrastructure and boost reserves.

The separate events point to a broader landscape of tightening regulations that local officials say would compound costs for taxpayers and utilities ratepayers down the line.

Over the next 15 to 20 years, the city of Springfield, Greene County and City Utilities officials are bracing for wastewater, stormwater, solid waste, water and air quality system upgrades required by state and federal regulators that are expected to cost $1.6 billion. But the target is moving.

In an attempt to reduce expenses, City Manager Greg Burris said city, county and CU officials are developing an integrated plan to satisfy regulators while saving residents money.

“Whether you’re paying a county tax, a city tax, or it’s on a CU bill, it’s all coming out of the same wallet, and it’s yours,” Burris said.

About two years ago, Burris said local officials assembled an Unfunded Environmental Mandate Affordability Task Force comprising local residents, a DNR staff member to provide technical guidance, and officials with the city, county and CU. The 10-member group included Chairman Rob Dixon of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, Roseann Bentley of the Greene County Commission, Skip Jansen of the Board of Public Utilities and Jared Rasmussen of engineering firm Olsson Associates Inc.

Their task: Demonstrate to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and EPA enforcement agencies the amount upgrades would cost local residents and that affordability was important.

Among recommendations in a January 2013 report, the task force suggested new technology to achieve environmental goals should not be valued above older, more cost-effective technology, if it can achieve a high level of protection.

Cindy Davies, director of DNR’s Southwest Regional Office, confirmed in the report use of “the best available technology” is built into the permitting process. According to Davies, “This policy can result in continual upgrade requirements for communities as technologies continually change.”

The task force found the cost of upgrades is most severe on the poor. By fiscal 2020, those with a household income of $10,000 would devote 10.9 percent of their income to upgrades, while those earning $34,500 would pay 3.1 percent. By 2030, those percentages become 15.2 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.

Based on the $1.6 billion estimate, the average Greene County resident would pay $6,400 during the implementation period.

“We have a wave of unfunded mandates poised on our property line. But we’re no different than any other community,” Burris said.

“On the other side of the equation, there is something happening here that isn’t happening elsewhere. We are still refining it, but it’s called an integrated plan.”

Burris said the broad plan is now becoming more specific, and both the regional EPA and DNR directors have endorsed it so far.

The plan is about 75 percent complete, though Burris said it is too soon to estimate how much the city could reduce its infrastructure expenditures. But he believes in the approach.

“Working with the EPA and DNR, we would say, ‘Here’s what you are wanting to accomplish. Here’s another way of doing that that would cost our citizens less.’ It would require regulators to really consider community affordability for the first time,” Burris said.

Springfield Director of Environmental Services Steve Meyer, who also served on the affordability task force, said a victory last year with the EPA for a daily measurement of stormwater entering streams is shaping how the area is moving forward with water quality issues.

“We’re working with the EPA to sample right now to see what is in the water and what it’s going to take to get it out. That process is probably going to go another three to four years,” Meyer said.

But there’s a greater problem at play: Funding for stormwater improvements has dried up with the July 1, 2012, expiration of the Springfield-Greene County Parks’ 1/4-cent sales tax.

“We have no funding source whatsoever,” Meyer said.  

That’s another reason Burris said the integrated plan matters.

He said many communities are seeking ways to fund sanitary sewer system upgrades – a prospect Meyer has said is expected to cost St. Louis $4.7 billon over 23 years and Kansas City $2.5 billion over 25 years.

In Springfield and Greene County, the Early Action Plan is focused on limiting EPA-regulated sanitary system overflows.

“Some communities have a combined system with wastewater and stormwater running through the same pipe. We do not. We have a separate system. However, during a heavy rain, stormwater gets into our [wastewater] system and causes all kinds of problems,” Burris said. “There are some communities that try to fight that by saying, ‘We will build a larger sewer plant at the bottom of the hill.’ We’ve taken a different tactic. We are trying to reduce inflow and infiltration.

“For every dollar we spend in repairs and keeping stormwater out, we save $7 downstream,” he said.

Steve Stodden, CU’s associate general manager of electric supply, said the utility provider is embarking on $35 million in upgrades to improve air quality at multiple energy production facilities aimed at meeting the EPA’s mercury emissions standards.

That work is funded through electric rate increases Springfield City Council approved last September: by 5.9 percent in fiscal 2015, 3.9 percent in fiscal 2016 and 3.7 percent in fiscal 2017.

While he said much is uncertain about the regulatory environment and the cost of potential upgrades is in flux, he knows proposed carbon emission standards that are expected to take hold in 2020 and ramp up through 2030 are going to be costly.

“We are about 80 percent coal-based, and that really targets the coal generators,” he said.