Title
To request Congress to Reform the Clean Water Act Sewer Overflow Policy to Achieve Sustainable Long-Term Goals.
Body
WHEREAS, the City of Columbus is committed to providing customers superior and dependable drinking water and sewer services that fully meet all regulations and set an industry standard for excellence; and
WHEREAS, the City of Columbus has established a Long-Term Control Plan (LTCP) to comply with two consent decrees with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) based on Clean Water Act requirements; and
WHEREAS, approximately 772 other cities in the United States will be required to establish legally-binding Long-Term Control Plans (LTCPs) to comply with the Federal Clean Water Act regulations involving Combined Sewer Overflows and Sanitary Sewer OverflowCSOs/SSOs) over the current and next decade; and
WHEREAS, these LTCPs will involve the establishment of new infrastructure to reduce the discharge of untreated sewerage and/or untreated storm water into local receiving waters; and the new infrastructure options available for this purpose involve major capital investments and recurring increases in user charges for the construction of new treatment facilities or additional treatment capacity at existing facilities, new sewer lines to convey wet weather overflows to the new treatment facilities, underground storage facilities, additional monitoring, reporting and compliance costs, additional operations and maintenance costs to municipalities; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. EPA is reluctant to exercise the flexibility it adopted in the U.S. EPA CSO Control Policy and U.S. EPA CSO-Guidance for Financial Capability Assessment and Schedule Development concerning affordability, compliance schedules, volume and frequency of annual overflows necessary to comply with the Clean Water Act water-quality standards, and inclusion of green infrastructure as part of the city's LTCP; and
WHEREAS, the capital cost - estimated at $2.5 billion in 2005 - the City of Columbus must bear to comply with the CSO policy is among the single most costly public works projects in its history; and
WHEREAS, the environmental benefits associated with the U.S. EPA's interpretation of requirements under the CSO Central Policy often do not balance with local economic goals and create a cost-disincentive for commerce and industry; thus, adversely impacting jobs, local income and the local tax revenue and income of taxpayers to support the investments required to finance the LTCP; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Conference of Mayors unanimously adopted Resolution 43, which urges, in part, that Congress amend the Clean Water Act to create a true federal-local partnership whereby the federal government provides at least fifty percent of the cost of compliance with all regulations established under the Act; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
That we join the U.S. Conference of Mayors in requesting Congress to "Reform the Clean Water Act Sewer Overflow Policy to Achieve Sustainable Long-Term Goals".
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City Clerk be and hereby is authorized and directed to provide a copy of this resolution to the Honorable David J. Berger, Mayor of the City of Lima, 50 Town Square, Lima, OH 45801-4900.