Graves Introduces Legislation to Provide Relief to Small Municipalities

Statement

U.S. Representative Sam Graves today introduced legislation to increase the length of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit cycle from five to twenty years. Introduced along with Representatives Blaine Luetkemeyer, Billy Long, Vicky Hartzler, Ann Wagner and Jason Smith, this bill will allow municipalities time to prudently finance required improvements.

Municipalities are often forced to take out a twenty-year loan for each NPDES permit, meaning that at any time, they are paying off loans for four different five-year permits.

"Many of these municipalities are already struggling financially, and having to pay off multiple loans at once is an added burden that simply does not make sense," Rep. Graves said. "The common-sense solution is to increase the length of the NPDES permit cycle to match the time a municipality is in debt to one permit cycle. Our bill will do just that."

"This issue was brought to my attention during a meeting with officials from the Hannibal Public Works Department," Rep. Graves continued. "I am glad to see the Missouri delegation come together to introduce a solution to a problem facing many communities across our state."

"More and more cities across the United States are caught in the trap of paying for improvements to sewer plants when those improvements can no longer be used by the city because of changing effluent limits," said Floyd Gilzow, the Vice President of Member Relations, Governmental and Environmental Affairs, for the Missouri Public Utility Alliance. "Grandfathering the limits until debts are retired is a common sense approach that continues to protect the environment and the pocketbooks of ratepayers at all levels."

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