For those of you not familiar with the acronym, "MS4" is short for "municipal separate storm sewer system." Approximately 14 years ago, many municipalities within Pennsylvania (based on population densities) were required to obtain Nation Pollutant Elimination Discharge System (NPDES) Permits to formally authorize stormwater discharges from existing and future municipal storm sewer systems. Past and current permit requirements essentially entailed/entail public education/outreach relative to the importance of pollutant free stormwater, mapping of municipal storm sewer systems, monitoring of storm sewer systems & elimination of illicit discharges (e.g. illegal sewer connections), proper management of construction and post-construction stormwater runoff, and employing best management practices in municipal operations to mitigate potential stormwater pollution sources.
For most municipalities, the next permit cycle begins in March 2018 and with it come significant additional requirements in many cases. In addition to continuing efforts to address the requirements described above, under the requirements of the 2018 permit, many municipalities will also need to prepare/execute plans to address pollutant reductions within local streams to eliminate existing impairments caused by pollutants such as sediment, phosphorus and nitrogen. Plans to address the required pollutant reductions will likely propose things such as: construction of new stormwater management facilities, retrofit of existing facilities, stream restoration projects, riparian buffer restoration, etc. In other words, municipalities that are subject to the requirements of MS4 permits are going to have to begin (if they have not already) budgeting significant funds to finance projects similar to those referenced above.
In most cases, applications for the 2018 permit renewal are due to DEP in September of this year. Any municipality subject to the requirements of the pollutant reduction plans described above is required to advertise a draft version of the plan for public review no later than early August of this year. Considering the significant costs associated with the permit requirements, it is very likely that municipalities will need to raise taxes, in one form or another, as financing projects related to stormwater pollutant removal will be rather costly in many cases.
For the record,I'm a professional engineer that is currently handling this permit work for a number of municipalities in southeast PA. While some municipalities have been very proactive about educating their respective communities regarding MS4 requirements and implications (taxes and otherwise), other municipalities are not giving the matter the attention it probably deserves. If the program continues in its current trajectory, within several years many municipalities will be struggling to shoehorn the financial obligations of this program into their already, presumably lean budgets.
Although my company has benefited financially from the MS4 program, I am not fan of it. Since its inception, I cannot name a single thing, in my experience, that has been done as a result of the program to significantly clean up stormwater discharges and ultimately improve stream quality. But I will leave my opinion commentary at that, as this post is not intended to have any political slant. I simply wanted to provide this heads-up to any PA residents that may be interested in a matter that could potentially impact their local taxes at some point in the relatively near future.
Happy Independence Day!
