An Act To Improve the Department of Environmental Protection's Annual Waste Discharge License Fee System
Emergency preamble. Whereas, acts and resolves of the Legislature do not become effective until 90 days after adjournment unless enacted as emergencies; and
Whereas, this legislation revises the Department of Environmental Protection's annual waste discharge license fee system; and
Whereas, in order to maintain a consistent cash flow into the waste discharge license fee account at the Department of Environmental Protection, one-quarter of the regulated community is billed in each quarter of the year; and
Whereas, if the revised fee schedule does not become effective until 90 days after adjournment of the Legislature, one-half of the regulated community will be billed under the current fee system and the other half will be billed under the revised system, creating inequity within the regulated community as to how fees are assessed; and
Whereas, in the judgment of the Legislature, these facts create an emergency within the meaning of the Constitution of Maine and require the following legislation as immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety; now, therefore,
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 FFFF, §2, is repealed and the following enacted in its place: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:
Emergency clause. In view of the emergency cited in the preamble, this legislation takes effect when approved.