SB-95: Bucking feds & water quality standards

“If the Feds think OUR town is gonna pony-up for all these high-fallutin’ big-city water quality ideas, they gotta-nuthur-think comin!”–typecast local yokel during imaginary constituent call.

The Helena Independent-Record’s Larry Kline wrote a piece today on a bill recently passed by the state legislature that will let local governments drag their heels on federally-mandated water quality standards under the guise of saving money.

Senate Bill 95 eased its way through the legislature like diahrea last week, and is now headed for Governor Brian Schweitzer’s desk. The bill allows local municipalities to take their time adhering to a recent requirement from the Environmental Protection Agency that states create regulatory standards to curb the release of nitrates, phosphates, and other pollutants into groundwater systems.

Folks most impacted by this regulation are local governments, sewer districts, and industry, who otherwise must pay for multi-million dollar improvements to local sewer and water filtration systems. A second, less-obvious group include the real estate business, farmers and ranchers, and large-scale property owners who rely on fertilizers, landscaping regimes, or big irrigation systems–golf courses, guest ranches, etc..

Oh, yeah, and there’s also people who drink water… but they’re not like… important stakeholders in all this. Anyways…

 

"Non-point" pollution is the aim of the EPA's requirements that states step-up local water quality standards. SB-95 allows a convenient loophole. (Image Courtesy: NOAA.gov)

 

The reason all these folks are impacted is because the EPA’s new regs aim at pollutants that typically enter the aquifer through “non-point,” as opposed to “point” water sources. “Point” source would be like a discharge pipe, or broken sewer main. A “non-point” pollutant would find its way into the watershed indirectly, like from irrigation runoff, pipe seapage, or a contractor dumping hundreds of gallons of paint thinner into a dry well that later absorbed into the soil… hypothetically, of course.

Well, maybe not.

The problem for cities and sewer districts is that they’ll be the ones picking up the tab for fixing the pollution, and will be held accountable by Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), our state’s version of the EPA. Their director, Richard Opper, tends to get his ass kicked in the press… 

Enviros hate him for not doing his job, and industry hates him for doing his job.

Go figure.

 

State Senator John Brueggeman, R-Polson, introduced SB-95, which allows local municipalities to drag their heels in meeting water quality standards. (Photo Courtesy: MT Legislature))

 

State Senator John Brueggeman, R-Polson, introduced the bill, which will offer cities and sewer districts a 20-year “variance” that will allow them to adhere to the EPA’s requirement only as affordability and technology allow. Brueggeman is one of the GOP’s long-term leadership groomees, along with a former Navy SEAL named Ryan Zinke, R-Whitefish, AKA Terrorist Killah. Brueggy also has a blog, here.

Anyways, this bill’s popularity was no surprise.

Despite Montana’s constitutional guarantee of a “clean and healthful environment,” this bill aroused natural disdain for the feds, and was endeared by the League of Cities and Towns, who have an influential lobby operation in Helena. Additionally, the real estate bidness ain’t no fan, and don’t ever try to pass a bill in the Montana legislature that both farmers and industry don’t like.

Idealism and realism clash in a hurry.

The bummer, from our point of view, is a little less obvious.

Nation-wide, rejecting stimulus money has been more popular than disco, cocaine, and callgirls with Republican leaders. Republicans have been trying at a state-by-state level to undermine the national stimulus bill, and in many cases prevent any of its benefits from reaching their intended states. It spells political capital for Democrats nationwide, and the GOP has been adept at cutting this off everywhere possible. Gov. Sarah Palin is one of many examples of GOP governors rejecting federal stimulus money, something that plays well to the GOP’s long-term advantage, even though it screws Americans. 

The GOP screw Americans? Whaaa?

Well, sarcasm aside, what this has to do with Montana and SB-95 is the federal money coming down the pike for local water infrastructure. It’s the piece of the stimulus bill that hopes to use federal money to rebuild water infrastructure like local septic and sewer systems through revolving loan programs already in existence. In Montana, for example, the DEQ, and the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC), oversee a variety of loans that dish out millions to local governments to rebuild and renew their local water systems at extremely low interest rates. 

New stimulus money is finding its way to these programs, but with SB-95 looking to pass, the impetus to bring local municipalities up to speed with water quality standards through costly water sytem restoration projects is gone…

…at least for 20 years, that’s all.

Tags: Federal Stimulus Money, Helena IR, John Brueggeman, Larry Kline, Montana Association of Realtors, Montana League of Cities and Towns, Montana Legislature, Montana Sewer Districts, Montana Water Quality, MT DNRC, MT EPA, Richard Opper, Ryan Zinke, Sarah Palin, Terrorist Killah