jennifer hughes, program manager sc department of health and environmental control
DESCRIPTION
Local Solutions to Local Problems: South Carolina’s Small Local Governments Compliance Assistance Project. Jennifer Hughes, Program Manager SC Department of Health and Environmental Control National Environmental Partnership Summit 2007. Project Goals. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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Local Solutions to Local Problems:South Carolina’s Small Local Governments
Compliance Assistance Project
Jennifer Hughes, Program Manager
SC Department of Health and
Environmental Control
National Environmental Partnership Summit 2007
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Project Goals
• EPA’s Goal: Develop capacity test and demonstrate its use pursuant to Small Local Governments Compliance Assistance Policy
• DHEC’s Goal: Address chronic non-compliance of small municipal drinking water systems in the Low Country region of South Carolina
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Project Partners
• EPA • ECOS • DHEC (Aiken & Beaufort Regional EQC Offices)• Low Country Council of Governments • Force & Associates
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Project Activities
• Develop “fenceline” capacity test for small municipal drinking water systems pursuant to EPA policy
• Analyze technical, managerial and financial aspects of the eleven municipal water systems in the regions
• Apply the test to the municipal water systems and provide results to each system
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Project Activities cont.
• Determine whether the systems can remain viable
• Identify areas of concern from the test results, and facilitate dialogue among the systems
• Discuss consolidation and regionalization options with the systems
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Project Map
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Project ResultsGeneral
• 8 out of 11 systems were not adequate • Within last 5 years 3 systems had Consent
Agreements and 1 had a Notice of Violation• 9 systems received grants to fund water &
sewer projects within past 10 years
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Project Results cont.Technical
• Most systems have adequate water capacity
• One system failed to meet minimum storage requirement
• Most systems either borderline or not adequate in compliance with programs, manuals, and procedures
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Project Results cont.Managerial
• 9 of the 11 systems were not adequate
• ½ systems lack professional managers
• More than ½ lack up-to-date fixed asset registers
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Project Results cont.Financial
• None are adequate
• Most systems have water budgets combined with other services
• Most systems have excessive water loss, substantial debt per customer, low rates, and inadequate depreciation funding
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Project ResultsSummary
• One system has adequate technical, managerial, financial capacity to remain compliant
• Estimated 30% savings by regionalization or consolidation of services
• About 15% reduction in staff by regionalization or consolidation
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Project Status
• DHEC supplemented the grant to ensure end goals were achieved. This included work with municipal leaders to:– Facilitate further discussions of regionalization
and consolidation issues for small water systems
– Determine how to combine strengths and eliminate weaknesses of technical, managerial and financial issues for systems to increase overall environmental compliance
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Conclusion
Project Summary and Capacity test are available on the DHEC web site at
www.dhec.sc.gov/compass “Recently Completed and Ongoing Projects”
Contact: Jennifer Hughes 803-641-7670