Transcript Slide 1

Funding your Stormwater
Management Program:
Beg, Borrow or Steal???
Howard Redfearn
Stormwater Manager
City of Mansfield
Overview
Budget Estimates
 Determining
capital items, personnel, supplies, etc…
Budget Process
 Watching
your estimates get whacked
Dealing with fiscal realities
 “I
reject your reality and substitute my own” – Adam Savage
– Mythbuster
Dealing with the upcoming MS4 permit renewal
Standard Funding Mechanisms
 Not
sexy, but sure sources of funds
Alternative Funding Solutions
 You
are about to enter another dimension, not only of taxes
and fees, but of “free” money
It’s a FISCAL year, not a PHYSICAL year
Located in south central DFW Metroplex
Spread over 3 counties
Approximately 55,000 residents
Rapid growth over last 10-15 years
Budget Estimates - Beg
How robust is your program?
 Your
SWMP should drive budget estimates
Map out hourly estimates for personnel for each permit
year individually
Don’t forget those personnel will need “stuff”
Vehicles,
sampling supplies, protective gear, computers, office
supplies etc…
Excellent time to brief a supervisor on what will be
needed for upcoming fiscal year
Budget items
•Personnel
 Who,
•Capital
how many, type
Items
 Trucks,
excavators, vac trucks, hydro-seeders, etc…
•Supplies
 Office
stuffs, computers, cell phones, data plans, paper,
printing, protective clothing etc…
•Travel
Training – professional development
•Revenues
•Debt
Example
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City of Mansfield will conduct 2 volunteer clean ups
per permit year
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5-10 hours for selecting dates - verify that no other
department has a major event, no major sports events,
and no other national things are going on the same day
If first time – 10 hours to create brochure/flyer –
otherwise 2 hours to update flyer
10-20 to select locations
35 hours per event for coordinating
8 hours per event for the event itself
6 hours per event for followup
115-140 hours total per year
Example cont’d
Feed 100-150 volunteers - $600
Promotional items - $1200
T-shirts,
give aways
Printing and advertising - $200
Local
paper or City newsletter? Take advantage of free sources as
much as possible
Police or fire dept support?
Traffic
control and/or first aid
Grand Total
115-140 hours for personnel
 Only
includes the primary person coordinating the event
$2,000 for food, advertising, giveaways per event per
year
For a permit term just multiply by 5
Personnel Forecasts
Use the hourly totals for all BMPs to develop a total
hourly need
 Try
to move as many of those hours to existing staff as
possible and when feasible
Can use FTEs if your organization uses them
 Full
Time Equivalents
FTEs
can be used to staff some position with part time employees
Part timers don’t hit your budget for retirement, medical, etc…
Keep in mind the seasonality of workload
Capital Forecasts
May be driven by needs outside of SWMP
 Channel
maintenance, small construction etc…
Vehicles
 Is
it worth having a small electronic vehicle for events?
Specialty Equipment
 Contract
out or keep in house – that really is the question
A strong argument will help ensure you get what you
ask for – even if you have a utility in place
Professional Development
Options are limited
 MS4
conference and TCEQ Tradefair
 IECA, SCIECA, COGs, TEEX, some Phase 1s offer training
 Forester Press, StormCon, EnviroCert, other private groups
Lack of availability makes costs higher
Not generally available locally
Pool resources with surrounding communities to share
cost load for outside organizations
Revenues
Property taxes
 General
fund
Sales taxes
 General
fund
Drainage Utility Fees
 Dedicated
fees – ordinance controls what expenses can be
covered
Special revenues
 MUDs,
Drainage Districts
Debt
Servicing debt will reduce your capacity for annual
expenses
 Roughly
½ of current revenues for drainage utility go to debt
service for $7.1 million in Mansfield
Sometimes there is no choice
 Detention
facilities, large number of capital items (starting
up a new department)
Should never be used to cover annual operating costs
Will be limited based on revenues
Fiscal Realities
Propose draft budget
 After
your budget is prepared discuss with supervisor
(unless a director yourself)
 Over-commit or propose a real budget
Meet with Finance
 If
over committed – offer up items to be cut
 If you proposed a real budget you may get necessary
funding reduced
Some
finance departments receive direction from CMO to trim
budgets
Finance takes budget to CMO
CMO takes budget to Council
Cost Overruns
•Will
depend on particular situation and organization
 May
be able to request reappropriation from Finance
 May be stuck
•If
it is for an item that will cause you to miss
implementation of a BMP and report it in the annual
report, be sure it is properly explained
 Better
•No
to have an email or other supporting documentation
body cares about underruns
 Could
cause that line item to be reduced next budget year
Standard Funding Mechanisms
General Budget
 Funded
through collected property and sales taxes
 Your budget needs compete with all other departments
 Goes up and down with property values/tax revenues
Drainage Utility
 Dedicated
fee for drainage purposes – you know what you’ll
get every year
 Increases with development
 Can be used to support NPDES required activities
MUDs, SUDs, and DUDs – OH MY!
 Special
utility districts
 Not all that common
Drainage Utility Fee
Fee assessed per developed property
Rules set by State Congress
Generally based on impervious area/percentage
Dedicated, steady fee to be used for stormwater
infrastructure – can be used to fund SWMP activities
Revenues can be used to issue debt
Beware robber barons
What about gas wells?
 Created
a new definition for “benefitted user”
 Allows utility fee to be assessed to entity receiving “benefit”
of impervious improvements, generally property owner
 Bill energy companies directly
 Additional $40,000/year to drainage utility
 Completely eaten up with salaries added for upcoming fiscal
year
Don’t forget other department funding mechanisms
 Solid
waste utility funds – or fee collection
 Parks ½ sales tax
 Water utilities water conservation budgets
 Sanitary utility SSO prevention budgets
 Public Information – newsletters, websites, mailings, other
 Bond elections
Can’t
be used to fund revolving activities – should include water
quality components of public improvements
Take Credit Where Credit is Due - Borrow
The easiest way to “borrow” from another department
without upsetting everyone is to take credit for their
work
 Audits,
which will be required in new permit, should help
identify existing procedures that can be counted
 Will help identify simple changes that can be incorporated
May have to go over head of some managers to get
results
 CMO
buy in is crucial
Probably most difficult annual report data to
collect/compile
New Permit Requirements
Combining Public Ed/Involvement
Identify ‘community wide priority issues”
 Bacteria,
illegal dumping, nutrients, etc..
Strongly recommend public input procedures and
participation in clean ups or other events
No real increased costs associated with this MCM,
unless you are a newly regulated entity
IDDE New Requirements
Must implement and enforce program
MS4 Map
Training – all field staff who may come into contact with
illicit discharge – can be in house
SOP for tracing
SOP for removing
Tiers 2,3,4 Procedures to prevent and correct leaking
OSSF
 Still
not clear on exact measures TCEQ is expecting
Tier 3,4 – follow up to verify elimination
Tier 4 Identify priority areas and field screen
Construction New Requirements
Provide electronic or written inspection report
Construction Site Inventory
Nothing else has really changed
Post Construction New Requirements
Continue doing what we’re doing
Document and maintain records of enforcement
Maintenance plan must be filed in the real property
records of the county
Must require owner to retain maintenance documents
on site
Tier 4 – must conduct inspections of post construction
measures
Depending on area concerned, Tier 4 MS4s could see
cost increases with inspection program
P2 New Requirements
Facility and control inventory
 Specific
list of facilities to be inventoried
Training for appropriate employees
Contractor oversight requirements
 City
contractors must be contractually required to comply with
SWMP
Municipal activity assessments required
 Road
and parking, bridge, cold weather and ROW maintenance
 Identify potential pollutants
 P2 controls or suggest alternatives
 Inspect P2 controls
Inspection and cleaning of “catch basins” – its an inlet
 Prioritize
based on problem areas
 Inspect and clean “as necessary”
Roadway pollution reduction – street sweeping
 In
areas where sweeping is infeasible – alternative methods
Tier 3,4 – Map facilities
Tier 3,4 – Facility Assessment
 Once
per term
 Identify High Priority facilities
Tier 3,4 – Facility SOPs
Tier 3,4 – High Priority Controls
 Specific
controls for de-icing, material storage, housekeeping, fueling,
washing – additional inspection of high priority facilities
Tier 4 – comply with Pesticide General Permit
Lots of potential to increase operating costs throughout
organization
Industrial Program – All New
Tier 4 only
Scaled way back from original proposal
Must create inspection program for municipal and
private industrial sources
Must include prioritization and inspection procedures
Should be able to mirror Phase I Industrial Programs
Will require increased costs if not already implementing
TMDL New Requirements
Do not get me started
Still being ironed out
Different requirements for TMDL vs. Impaired without
 TMDL
– come up with benchmark (load)
Sampling
to meet benchmark
Change BMPs if no progress in 3 years
May be in addition to work required by I-Plan
 Impaired
without TMDL
Determine
if contributing in 1 year
Implement BMPs to control pollutant – NOC required in 3 years
Hope is to prevent TMDLs
 Backdoor
to monitoring – required with TMDL or without
Separate requirements for bacteria
There will be blood – no way this does not increase costs
Remember – lack of funds is not an affirmative defense
for not meeting permit requirements
 You
have to be able to find the money somewhere
Will depend on what you commit to on your SWMP
 Current
staffing, equipment, etc…
 “Commit low, achieve high” – Gene Rattan
Alternative Funding Universe
Diverse mix of local, State and Federal funding
opportunities
 Cyclical
in nature
 Most likely will not meet needs of regular O&M
 Can often be used to “fill the gap” between traditional and
new technologies
Free money is NEVER “free”
 Most
alternative funding consists of grants, loans and other
sources that require local match or record keeping
Not a “silver” bullet for budget shortfalls
 Can
be used to fund a pet project
What can be funded
New educational activities
Detention facilities
 Can
include water quality treatment
Planning
 Flood
plans, watershed management plans
New/innovative technologies
Construction projects
 Streambank
restoration, constructed wetlands
Equipment, vehicles, personnel (for a time)
Anything you can get away with
Common Grants
319 Grants
 Administered
through TSSCWB & TCEQ – funds from EPA
 Requires local match
 For non-point sources only
 Offered annually – regionally competitive
Federal
 Onerous
Congress must approve in budget
record keeping
Environmental Education Grants
 Administered
through EPA
 Offered annually – nationally competitive
 Project funding limits
 Onerous record keeping
Cross-pollinating
COG Solid Waste Grants
 Can’t
be used for “stormwater purposes”
 Will fund equipment, personnel, activities related to
recycling, HHW management, landfill diversion, and illegal
dumping
 Offered in biennium cycles – State budget
 Regionally competitive
 Light record keeping
Brownfields Program
 Run
through EPA
 Funds Phase I/II ESAs
 Can help with clean up costs
Parks Grants
 Too
many to name
 Can be used for any number of parks facilities
 Can include water quality treatment components in
construction
•FEMA
Grants
 HMGP,
FMA, SRL, PMD
 Administered through TWDB or TxDEM
 High record keeping requirements
 Can fund structure removals, detention facilities, wetlands
construction for flood mitigation, planning
 Local match
 Federal or regional
 Local match varies based on grant type
Dry Cleaner Remediation Program
 Funds
collected and set aside for decommissioning dry
cleaner sites
 Owner/operator has to be one to apply for funds
 Has to have participated in DCRP
Be
 May
registered and pay annual fee
have to pay deductible
State Revolving Loan Program
 Administered
through TWDB – funds from EPA
 Low interest loans - statewide competition
 Planning, construction, stormwater and non-point source
projects
•Private
grants
 Numerous
private and non-profit environmental
organizations issue grants every year
 Project and topic specific
 Lower dollar amounts
•University
Cooperation
 Universities
Professors
with environmental studies have professors
have students, and hopefully grad students
Grad students need projects, and professors apply for all manner of
funding
Projects can include sampling, analyzing sampling data,
implementation of new technologies, etc…
Other Groups
Soil Conservation Service/National Resource
Conservation Service
Environmental Non-profits
US Fish and Wildlife
National Parks Service
Texas Parks
Texas Game and Wildlife
US Corps of Engineers
Keep America/Texas Beautiful
Many groups – EPA, COG’s, others – offer grant writing
classes
Several outside groups that will apply for and administer
grant for you
 Fee
can usually be taken from grant award
Bottom line
funds are available for projects that have a surface
water quality benefit that may not say “Stormwater”
Don’t shy away from them
Does take work
 Find,
apply, administer, report
Can score points with CMO
Howard Redfearn
Stormwater Manager
[email protected]
817-276-4240