Funding source for water protection running dry

ST. LOUIS -- Missouri's ability to curb water pollution and monitor water quality could be in jeopardy as a state fee that helps fund the program is in danger of expiring by the end of this year.

Routine fees paid by businesses and municipalities for permission to discharge wastewater or divert storm runoff into Missouri rivers and streams are set to expire Sept. 1, unless they're renewed by state lawmakers.

"You can't continue to deficit spend, so resolution is going to have to be brought to this. ... My belief is that getting something resolved this session won't be a problem." said Sen. Brad Lager, R-Savannah, Mo.

The Department of Natural Resources collects about $4 million a year in water permit fees. The fees began in 1990, and comprise about a quarter of the budget for the water protection program, which issues permits, conducts inspections and monitors water quality.

In 2011, the Legislature allowed these fees to expire, leaving DNR without the ability to assess permit fees for more than six months.

A bill reauthorizing the fees ultimately passed, but it required the department's director to sit down with regulated industries and come up with a new fee structure.

That effort produced a draft report issued Nov. 30 that recommended fee increases for the first time since 2000 and would have raised enough additional revenue over the next four fiscal years to offset a projected $2.9 million annual deficit for the water program.

The proposal would have also granted the Clean Water Commission, a resident water regulatory panel appointed by the governor, the authority to raise permit fees as necessary.

But in a final report to the Legislature on Dec. 31, the department, without explanation, did not include the proposals to boost fees -- an action that frustrated business groups.

"Some of my clients are ready to pony up for increased fees," Robert Brundage, a lawyer representing agribusiness companies, said at a Clean Water Commission meeting last month. "In this time and age, that's not an easy thing to do. ... Without funding, permits aren't going to get out the door, the water's not going to be protected, the inspectors aren't going to be out there inspecting."

Lager called the department's final report "very disappointing." He said lawmakers would use the Nov. 30 draft report on water fees instead of the department's proposal as a starting point to craft a permanent fix to the water fee structure.

Environmental and conservation groups have joined with the business interests in trying to find adequate funding to help protect the state's water resources.

"It seems to us that the issue gets caught up in the whole tax issue, and no one wants to raise taxes," said Roger Walker, executive director of Regulatory Environmental Group for Missouri, which represents some of the state's largest employers on regulatory issues. "But it's not a tax, it's a fee for service."

Without adequate revenue, permits could get delayed and the department could lose staff and possibly the entire water program to the Environmental Protection Agency.