An Act To Improve the Department of Environmental Protection's Annual Waste Discharge License Fee System
Sec. 1. 38 MRSA §353-B, sub-§1, as amended by PL 2007, c. 558, §2, is further amended to read:
(1) The base fee may be increased by a factor reflecting the initial dilution of an effluent as discharged to the receiving water. This assessment is applied to nonresidential domestic wastewater and industrial process wastewater sources licensed for more than 50,000 gallons per day and having initial dilutions of less than 1,000 to one, except those sources where the licensed flow is less than 50,000 gallons per day and the initial dilution is greater than 50 to one. The assessment is determined by multiplying the applicable base fee times 1.5 divided by the square root of the chronic dilution factor.
(2) When a license authorizes multiple discharge points from the same location, there is an additional fee of $35 per discharge point.
Sec. 2. 38 MRSA §353-B, sub-§2, as amended by PL 2009, c. 213, Pt. FFFF, §2, is repealed and the following enacted in its place:
| Discharge group | Basis for annual fee | Median fee for discharge group | Water quality improvement surcharge | ||
| Publicly owned treatment facilities, 10,000 gallons per day or less | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $306 | ||
| Publicly owned treatment facilities, more than 10,000 gallons per day to 0.1 million gallons per day | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $400 | ||
| Publicly owned treatment facilities, more than 0.1 million gallons per day to 1.0 million gallons per day | annual fee | Average of 2009, 2010 and 2011 bill amounts | $617 | ||
| Publicly owned treatment facilities, more than 1.0 million gallons per day to 5.0 million gallons per day | annual fee | Average of 2009, 2010 and 2011 bill amounts | $1,300 | ||
| Publicly owned treatment facilities, greater than 5 million gallons per day or with significant industrial waste | annual fee | Average of 2009, 2010 and 2011 bill amounts | $4,553 | ||
| Major industrial facility, process wastewater (based on EPA list of major source discharges) | annual fee | Average of 2009, 2010 and 2011 bill amounts | $19,672 | ||
| Other industrial facility, process wastewater | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $1,214 | ||
| Food handling or packaging wastewater | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $659 | ||
| Fish-rearing facility 0.1 million gallons per day or less | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $312 | ||
| Fish-rearing facility over 0.1 million gallons per day | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $794 | ||
| Marine aquaculture facility | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $308 | ||
| Noncontact cooling water | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $192 | ||
| Industrial or commercial sources, miscellaneous or incidental nonprocess wastewater | annual fee | 2011 bill amounts | $363 | ||
| Municipal combined sewer overflow | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $413 | ||
| Sanitary wastewater, excluding overboard discharge | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $736 | ||
| Sanitary overboard discharge, commercial sources | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $446 | $75 | |
| Sanitary overboard discharge, residential sources 600 gallons per day or less | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $231 | $75 | |
| Sanitary overboard discharge, residential sources more than 600 gallons per day | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $313 | $75 | |
| Sanitary overboard discharge, public sources | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $315 | $75 | |
| Aquatic pesticide application | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $644 | ||
| Snow dumps | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $319 | ||
| Salt and sand storage pile | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $429 | ||
| Log storage permit | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $422 | ||
| General permit coverage for industrial storm water discharges (except construction) | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $300 | ||
| General permit coverage for marine aquaculture facility | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $134 | ||
| General permit coverage (other) | annual fee | 2011 bill amount | $164 | ||
| Experimental discharge license | license fee | 2011 bill amount | $899 | ||
| New or amended mixing zone, in addition to other applicable fees | flat fee | $5,368 | --- | ||
| Formation of sanitary district | flat fee | $402 | --- | ||
| Transfer of license for residential or commercial sanitary wastewater | flat fee | $100 | --- |
On an annual basis, municipalities and publicly owned treatment works whose combined sewer overflows have the potential to affect shellfish harvesting areas as determined by the department by virtue of their locations within estuarine or marine waters of the State must be assessed a surcharge on their wastewater discharge licenses in a total amount of $12,000. This amount must be allocated among the municipalities and publicly owned treatment works according to their prior 3-year average annual flows as reported to the department.
On an annual basis, publicly owned treatment works whose outfalls licensed for the discharge of treated effluent cause adjacent shellfish growing areas to be closed for the purposes of harvesting shellfish must be assessed a license surcharge in a total amount of $25,000. This amount must be allocated among the publicly owned treatment works according to the acreage that each licensed outfall closes. This acreage must be determined by the Department of Marine Resources in consultation with the department.
Sec. 3. 38 MRSA §353-B, sub-§§3 and 4, as enacted by PL 1997, c. 794, Pt. B, §7, are amended to read:
summary
This bill revises the Department of Environmental Protection’s annual waste discharge fee system. It eliminates the base fee, the fee for quantities of pollutants actually discharged or licensed to be discharged, the annualized license renewal service fee, the initial dilution fee and the multiple discharge point fee. In place of these fees it establishes for existing licensees a fee based on the average of the licensee's 2009 and 2010 bill amounts or a fee based on the licensee's 2011 bill amount, depending on the discharge group. It establishes for new licensees an annual fee based on the median fee of all licensees within the new licensee's discharge group. It establishes that, if no discharge occurs for an entire year, the fee is reduced to 25% of the annual fee. It establishes that an annual fee may be modified by a percentage that is equivalent to the percentage of any change to the licensed discharge flow.