Williamsport City Council approved an order of consent with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency pursuant to the city following federal regulations regarding stormwater discharge.

Mayor Derek Slaughter received approval of the execution of the order in a unanimous vote by council.

“We are working with the Williamsport Municipal Water and Sanitary Authority and EPA on this administrative order of consent on stormwater ordinance enforcement,” Slaughter said.

“We have met, we have gone over this with EPA, which is, essentially, in agreement with us on a plan of action going forward,” Slaughter said.

Solicitor Michael Wiley, a former city councilman, discussed the order in depth for the council to digest and the public to hear, as it was not discussed in a city committee.

Wiley asked council if there were questions, believing it was easier to respond to questions, than provide another summary, which Slaughter did.

While it was not before a city committee, it has been a product of negotiations.

“I would be remiss if I did not thank members of the Williamsport Municipal Water and Sanitary Authority for their assistance in this process,” Wiley said.

Michael Miller, authority executive director, along with Wendy Walter, authority director of compliance and safety, and others on that team were given kudos for their assistance on the negotiations with EPA officials and the order before council

“What is wrong and what is it going to cost?” Councilman Vincent Pulizzi asked.

Wiley responded.

The city has certain obligations under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit and those obligations are ongoing, Wiley said.

It is part of the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System MS4 program that the city is part of as well, he said. MS 4 is a conveyance or system of them that is owned by a municipality or state or public entity that discharges to waters of the nation. These are usually storm drains, pipes, ditches and not a combined sewer.

WHAT THE EPA HAS ASKED FOR

In June of this year, EPA came forward and indicated that there were issues with how the city was administering this program and it notified (gave notice) to the city of certain violations.

Furthermore, EPA invited the city to come to the table and negotiate a workout of those issues and so the workout has a couple different parts and those are all contained in the order.

Initially, the city has an obligation moving forward to inventory, inspect its MS4 discharge points that are listed in the order as outfalls, Wiley noted. That is an ongoing process, and ongoing obligation, he said.

Fortunately, that is what the sanitary authority has been working on in earnest so that the process that has been commenced will be continued and the order has that obligation outlined to continue that, he said.

Moreover, as part of the order the city must track its best management practices (BMPs) when they present themselves in two different ways – such as when they appear in land development plans reviewed and approved or denied by council, and through smaller projects, that might not go before council, but would require a review by the Bureau of Codes. These smaller projects might be involving a single-family house, Wiley said.

“There is going to be an obligation to inventory, to track those and have them in a chain of title and we have proposed a way to address them,” he said.

Finally, the city will have enforcement obligations relative to all of these issue, Wiley said.

For example, the city has an obligation to enforce its stormwater ordinance, and to make sure it is compliant with its programs, he said. “That is where the partnership with the authority will come into play,” he added. “A lot of the inventory and inspection pieces will fall into their purview. The enforcement part falls into the city’s purview, he said.

A POSITIVE WITH THIS ORDER

“The one thing that I can say with this order that is a positive is that there is no fine or penalty associated with it,” Wiley said.

The product of negotiations, the meetings and work that was done had EPA comfortable with how we were going to go, prospectively, as opposed to penalizing us for any issues that had arisen up to this point,” Wiley said.

From (our) the solicitor firm’s perspective (McCormick Law) it is a solid resolution, he said.

As of today, it is hard to quantify what would be associated with enforcement, as some of that is going to have to deal with how well people are compliant, Wiley said.

“That will be part of your codes process moving forward,” he said. “There will be violations and those violations will have to be pursued,” he said.

As for the inventory and inspection process, that is already in place with the agreement the city has with the authority, he said. The order sets some obligations with respect to that, he added.

Councilman Eric Beiter said while this addresses larger projects, such as the upcoming Wawa on Maynard Street, “how is this going to directly impact homeowners going forward?” he said. “Let’s say I decide I am going to plant a (rain) garden and redo my sidewalk and codes comes out.”

This order is a way of putting into place a way to manage any of the obligations, and making sure they are properly inventoried and inspected, Wiley said.

“I can’t say that there won’t be issues for single-family homeowners,” Wiley said. “There may well be, but that is already there,” he added. “We are not creating anything new with this order, we are just making sure we follow our obligations.”

“The sense I am getting is, basically, the EPA saying, ‘Hey, you were not listening the first time,'” Councilwoman Liz Miele said. “This is what you guys need to do and you better get to it, is that about accurate?”

“If you want to put brass tacks on the table, that is fair,” Wiley said. “From EPA’s perspective, there were other opportunities before we got to this point,” he said.

However, the team in place and cooperation with the city and authority was viewed positively by the federal agency and was part of the reason why the city was able to get to this type of a resolution as opposed to one that may have had fines or a penalty associated with it, Wiley explained.

The order lays out that the city side of the equation is going to be enforcement of the ordinance and the authority is the inventory inspections.

The next step appears as though the council will get together with the authority, sooner rather than later, to make certain of what is the city’s responsibility versus what is the authority’s responsibility. A working committee consisting of city and authority officials is likely to be formed to address obligations in this order.