Balanced approach to regulation

By Phil Cobb | July 20, 2016 |

Dan Hegeman

Over the past several years, Missouri lawmakers have enacted a number of reforms in an effort to make the Missouri Department of Natural Resources more accountable and responsible to the people of Missouri.

These reforms seek to find and maintain a balance between necessary regulation and the real world costs and consequences of that regulation. Although these efforts have been undertaken at the state level, the most difficult challenge related to maintaining that balance is the continual barrage of regulations being forced upon the states by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Right now, countless cities and towns throughout the Show-Me State and the nation are being told by state and federal regulators that they must address their aging water and sewer infrastructure by upgrading or replacing their existing wastewater treatment facilities.

Unfortunately, the total replacement of a wastewater treatment system is not an option for many of our smaller communities. In other cases, the DNR has told some communities that are still paying down loans on recently upgraded facilities that they must now make another upgrade to meet new EPA standards and guidelines, which is likely to cost millions more.

In an effort to reduce the financial burdens on Missouri communities and their citizens, this session we passed House Bill 1717, which included language requiring the DNR to provide any municipality or community currently served by a wastewater treatment system with information regarding alternative options to upgrade their existing lagoon system to meet new or existing discharge requirements.

This includes new advanced technologies and biological treatment systems. If upgrading or expanding the existing system using these options is feasible, cost effective and will meet the requirements, the DNR must allow the entity to implement the option.

We are all in agreement that having proper wastewater treatment facilities is critical to our health and environment, but we must also ensure that a common-sense approach is taken whenever systems need to be improved. House Bill 1717 gives our communities greater flexibility to meet standards in a cost-conscious way.