State Water Board Releases FY 2014 – 15 Water Quality Fee Regulations
This week, the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) released its proposed Water Quality Fees for Fiscal Year 2014 – 2015 and the 2014 – 2015 Annual Fee Schedules. There have been some modifications to the proposed fee schedule since the draft Water Quality Fee document was released on August 14. That document proposed an estimated 6.4% decrease in NPDES fees and a 4.9% across the board increase in WDR fees when compared to FY 2013-14. Based on the revised and final budget and revenue data for FY 2014-15, the regulations now propose to keep the NPDES fees static, but with a one-time 3.2% discount for the fiscal year. The WDR fees, on the other hand, will be increased by approximately 7.9% as compared to FY 2013-14.
As anticipated, the regulations contain a new approach to the way that fee payers are charged to support the state’s ambient monitoring programs. Currently, NPDES permit holders pay a separate surcharge of 21% annually to support the Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP); entities subject to WDRs pay a 9.5 percent surcharge to the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) program. The revised fee regulations roll these surcharges into the base fee assessment. Thus, while the proposed fees superficially appear to be significantly higher than current fees, the total fee amount does not exceed the current fee amount plus the applicable surcharge.
The Board proposes to adopt the fee schedules as emergency regulations, so the comment window is relatively short. The State Water Board will be accepting comments until noon on Thursday, September 18, 2014. All written comments may be submitted to the Clerk to the Board with the subject “Comment Letter – Water Quality Fees” via:
Mail: Jeanine Townsend, Clerk to the Board, P.O. Box 100, Sacramento, CA 95812-0100
The fees are expected to be adopted at the September 23, 2014 Board Meeting. CASA anticipates developing comments on behalf of NPDES and WDR fee payers and submitting those comments before the deadline.
