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MINUTES OF MEETING #104
February 4, 2009
The Maine Public Drinking Water Commission (DWC) held its 104th
meeting on February 4, 2009, at the Maine Drinking Water Program in
Present were:
Time: Judy Kelley called the meeting to order at 9:10 a.m.
A. Approval
of Minutes:
o
Rebecca moved
to approve the last meeting’s minutes (Meeting #103), and George seconded the
motion, which passed unanimously by Commission members.
1. AFM Cap Removal:
o Judy
gave a summary of the legislative committee hearing that occurred the day
before, regarding the bill to remove the $30,000 cap to the AFM charges. Judy,
George and Nancy Beardsley testified in support of the bill, while the
treasurer for Portland Water District provided testimony opposing the bill. A
work session was scheduled for February 5, 2009, where Roger would
provide the Committee with
further information on delinquency in payment statistics. 4% of the money due was unpaid and 6% of
public water systems failed to pay their fees.
2. Legislative/Bond Issues:
o One
bill involves taxation of groundwater extraction, while another bill seeks to
prevent water districts from selling water to commercial places. Representative Flood has submitted a bill
that will provide State Match through a General Obligation Bond for three years. It is anticipated that decisions on bonds
will not be made until May. No word yet
on the Governor’s bond proposal.
3. AFM Fee & Collection Status
o Cheryl
distributed reports of collection amounts received as of February 3, 2009, as
well as a list of public water systems with overdue amounts.
o Roger
provided an update to the Commission of what remains overdue. He reported that
a third notice was scheduled to be mailed this week for those systems failing
to pay thus far.
4. Staffing Update
o The
Drinking Water Program is looking to hire one or two contract employees this summer to help with the increased DWSRF
workload, but there are currently no plans to hire new staff.
o Roger
did report receiving an inquiry from the Director of the Maine CDC about the DWP’s
vacant receptionist position, which may be evidence that they’re considering a
thaw of the frozen positions which are federally funded.
1. AFM Formula Change Study Group
–Recommendations
o Roger submitted a written report to members, while George presented a summary of the findings to the study group. George reported that the group found that the formula should remain the same. With the AFM Cap removal probable, this change may prove the only fix needed.
.
2. Measures that Would Benchmark
the Success of the Program
o Roger
shared some graphs and reports regarding various figures that reflect functions
at the Maine Drinking Water Program, where staff can measure their progress and
benchmark their success. At a future meeting, Roger plans to provide the number
of public water systems committing violations.
3. Congressional Economic Stimulus Package
o The
DWP received $90 million in project requests, although
o The latest bill’s version requires that 50% be awarded as grant.
o EPA would like to see one Intended Use Plan for the standard SRF money and this economic stimulus, but that may prove tricky, given that the primary and backup lists are already formulated and based on a different prioritization system than this economic stimulus ranking.
o Bob expressed his hope that the DWP keeps awarding money to those systems interested in protecting public health, because he’s concerned that due to the urgency to spend the money so quickly that it may rush through less necessary projects.
o Roger responded that the DWP is intending to keep a health-based scoring system and add an evaluation of a “ready-to-proceed” factor, in order to develop a scoring system. The DWP always funds public water systems with MCL issues through the standard SRF process, so there is no danger of those projects falling through the cracks.
4. Rulemaking
o A
second meeting for stakeholders to discuss changes to the Cross Connection
Rules occurred in January. These
proposed rule changes will remove the requirement for public water systems to
report a list of cross- connection control devices used. Instead, they will be required to keep
records on site, for display when sanitary surveys occur.
5. Location and Date for next 2009 Meeting:
o Aqua
Nominating Committee. May 19, 2009.
6.
Motion to Adjourn: Tom moved to adjourn, and Bob seconded. The meeting adjourned at 10:59 am.
Respectfully submitted,
Tera R. Pare, J.D.