SCR10 (2008) Detail

(New Title) urging the New Hampshire congressional delegation to actively seek an increase in federal funding for wastewater treatment facility improvements.


SCR 10 – FINAL VERSION

03/20/08 0965s

05/08/08 1669eba

2008 SESSION

08-2893

06/09

SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 10

A RESOLUTION urging the New Hampshire congressional delegation to actively seek an increase in federal funding for wastewater treatment facility improvements.

SPONSORS: Sen. Cilley, Dist 6; Sen. Hassan, Dist 23; Rep. Powers, Rock 16; Rep. Fargo, Straf 4

COMMITTEE: Energy, Environment and Economic Development

ANALYSIS

This senate concurrent resolution urges the New Hampshire congressional delegation to actively seek an increase in federal funding for wastewater treatment facility improvements.

03/20/08 0965s

05/08/08 1669eba

08-2893

06/09

STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Eight

A RESOLUTION urging the New Hampshire congressional delegation to actively seek an increase in federal funding for wastewater treatment facility improvements.

Whereas, New Hampshire faces approximately $1,000,000,000 over the next 10 years in costs associated with upgrades to its wastewater treatment facilities to meet the needs imposed by growth and increasingly stringent treatment standards; and

Whereas, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has embarked on a program of setting increasingly more stringent discharge limits for wastewater treatment facilities to enhance receiving water quality; and

Whereas, an October 2007 study released by Environment New Hampshire lists New Hampshire as “one of ten states with the highest percentage of major wastewater treatment facilities exceeding their Clean Water Act permit limits at least once,” based on 2005 compliance data; and

Whereas, many of New Hampshire’s wastewater treatment facilities were constructed in the 1970s and 1980s under the Construction Grants Program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which provided funds for such construction in the ratio of 75 percent federal, 20 percent state, and 5 percent local; and

Whereas, such Construction Grants Program was curtailed in 1989; and

Whereas, the costs of improvements to the wastewater treatment facilities will be, in large part, shouldered by ratepayers, thus creating significantly burdensome financial obligations; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate, the House of Representatives concurring:

That the state of New Hampshire hereby requests that the New Hampshire congressional delegation seek an increase in federal funding for wastewater treatment facility improvements such that the ratio of cost-sharing will be apportioned to 60 percent federal, 30 percent state, and 10 percent local, consistent with grant programs available during the 1960s prior to the passage of the federal Clean Water Act; and

That copies of this resolution be forwarded by the senate clerk to each member of the New Hampshire congressional delegation.

Approved: April 23, 2008