05-26-1992 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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I':-: % # • V Metropolitan Waste Control Commission Mears Park Centre. 230 East Fifth Street. St. Paul. Minnesota 55101-1633 612 222-8423 1992 LE6ISIATIVE UPDATE A number of measures were debated in the 1992 Legislature and by federal regulators recently which affect MWCC and its ratepayers. These issues, and others, will be addressed in the budget breakfast meetings later this month. Here are highlights: 1. MWCC staff worked with the Association of Metropolitan Municipalities, the Suburban Rate Authority, the Northern Mayors Association, the Metropolitan Council and several metropolitan cities to reach a compromise with legislators to commission a rate structure study by the University of Minnesota. The Metropolitan Council will contract for the study. It will examine the social, economic and environmental effects of assessing costs within the sewer service areas where the costs are incurred, as compared to the current system of assessing costs uniformly throughout the metropolitan area. Upon completion of the study, results will be forwarded to the Legislature. 2. A provision in the Legislature's 1992 Omnibus Tax Bill calls for elimination of the sales tax-exempt status for certain political subdivisions, including the MWCC, effective June 1, 1992. We anticipate an increase in MWCC costs of about 1% next year. 3. On the federal level, MWCC has been alerted to a proposed amendment to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Reauthorization. This amendment makes changes in the so-called domestic sewage exclusion. From MWCC's viewpoint, the following language in the proposed amendment is of considerable concern: [A] publicly owned treatment works... receiving or treating any pollutant which is a hazardous waste shall not be deemed to be generating, treating, storing, disposing of, or otherwise managing a hazardous waste for the purposes of this Act if the treatment works has established and is ' enforcing requirements to prohibit the introduction of hazardous wastes into the treatment works, (emphasis added) It appears this language would require MWCC to develop lisUts for all hazardous waste covered under RCItA or run the risk of being considered a manager of hazardous wastes under the Act. The de- velopment of limits for all regulated hazardous wastes is clearly beyond the resources of MWCC. We have forwarded our concerns to Congress and the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies. 4. Representatives of MWCC's offices of Governmental Relations and Quality Control were invited by Wisconsin Legislators and the Boundary Area Commission to present an update on the Metro Plamt Phosphorus Study at a public hearing in Prescott April 6. The meeting gave MWCC an opportunity to share information with the general public and state and local officials on the progress of the study and make them aware of the next phase. If MWCC is required to remove phosphorus from the waste stream, its budget could go up by 40%. EqudI Opportunity/Alfirmaiive Action Eniployer Mr