Will NJ Towns, Counties Set Up Stormwater Utilities After Ida?

NEW JERSEY — The remnants of Ida devastated portions of New Jersey in early September, displacing residents in some communities from their flood-ravaged homes.

The catastrophe in the Garden State brought President Joe Biden and Gov. Phil Murphy to Somerset County's Hillsborough and Manville to tour the storm-damaged areas.

Biden, who arrived in Manville on Sept. 7, called the losses “profound,” taking note particularly of gas leaks causing home and business explosions, a damaged rail system and loss of lives, all started by flood waters. Biden said he’s seen storms pummeling regions throughout the United States, which he attributed to global warming.

“Every part of the country is getting hit by extreme weather,” Biden told attendees that day at a press conference at the Somerset County Emergency Operations Center in Hillsborough.

He believes the issue won’t resolve, calling it instead “an opportunity.”

“I think the country has finally acknowledged the fact that global warming is real and it is moving at an incredible pace,” Biden said. “We got to do something about it.”

"Stormwater Utility Law: Allows Set Up Of County, Town Stormwater Utilities

In March 2019, Murphy signed the Stormwater Utility Law, also called the “Clean Stormwater and Flood Reduction Act.” The bill, sponsored by 13 Democratic legislators, plus lone Republican New Jersey State Senator Christopher Bateman of the 16th District, permitted New Jersey municipalities and counties, as well as “certain authorities to establish and operate stormwater utilities.”

According to the bill, New Jersey has a host of issues because of “inadequate stormwater infrastructure and management,” citing that over 10 percent of New Jersey’s land is “covered in impervious surfaces.”

“These problems affect the health, safety, economic well-being and quality of life of the state’s residents,” the bill also stated.

The bill permitted the setup of stormwater utilities in New Jersey, which could be maintained through user fees and bonds, New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection having been charged with creating guidance for governing bodies to create stormwater utilities.

The DEP cites the basics on its Stormwater Utility Guidance page that storm runoff, whether from rain, melting snow or flood waters, creates the potential to carry trash, pollutants, bacteria and more into groundwater and water bodies. Lakes could see problems multiply from this phenomenon with the growth of Harmful Algal Blooms, which shut down Lake Hopatcong to swimmers for most of 2019’s summer season.

Why No Stormwater Utilities Yet In New Jersey?

In a recent report by the New Jersey Herald, the question was raised as to why no exclusive stormwater utilities have been created by any New Jersey municipality or county, since the signing of the Stormwater Utility Law. Over 1,800 stormwater utilities have been created in 41 states so far, the Herald reports, the most in Alabama, Florida and New Jersey’s neighbor, Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania’s stormwater utility measure went into effect in 2013, but Jeff Colella of the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority that services the Wilkes-Barre region, told the Herald that it took time to establish stormwater utilities there, something that may also happen in New Jersey. Others suggested to the Herald that the coronavirus pandemic has been a distraction in the establishment of stormwater utilities.

How much would the rate run per household or entity to operate a stormwater utility? Ed Potsonak of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters told the Herald this type of a utility won’t be a “silver bullet” to stop a potential catastrophic aftermath from happening entirely following a storm, but he suggested it could mitigate some of the problems some residents have experienced with flooding.

For homeowners, Potsonak said, in some states the average cost tallies to about $18 monthly. Assemblyman John McKeon, D-27th Dist., reported to the Herald, the law was intended to have significant commercial properties carry the lion’s share of the utility’s operation.

Other Solutions For Stormwater Management?

Nicknamed the “rain tax,” by some, including Republican Assemblyman Hal Wirths of the 24th Legislative District, Wirths rejected the idea of separate utilities, with municipal and county level ones already in place, encouraging his fellow legislators to do the same, before the law’s passage. In the Assembly, on its third reading, the bill passed 45-31, while in the Senate, it was 25-15.

In the 2018 video below, Wirths called it a “new tax that’s going to make things more difficult, for the businesses and the residents in this state.”

He said there was no path to the amount of tax possible, with it only marked “reasonable” in the bill.

“People don’t have any faith when Trenton says ‘reasonable,’” Wirths said.

He called it an “unlimited tax” and “another bureaucracy out of control,” with concerns as to how it could counteract the two percent property cap and further impact New Jersey’s ratings as one of the worst places to do business in the country.

Wirths said this type of law only increases the cost of living in the state.

“The people of New Jersey think anytime there’s nothing left to tax,” Wirths said in 2019, two months before Murphy signed the bill, “we come up with something else to tax,” tying it as well to wage increases in the state.

Since 2018 and 2019, Wirths stance hasn’t changed on what he sees as another way that New Jersey businesses or homeowners could be taxed, creating a “whole other bureaucracy,” he said, when utilities already exist in counties and towns.

He called it the “icing on the cake,” which he says is a tax disguised as a utility.

Wirths said he doesn’t deny the need to address stormwater management. Along with Sen. Steve Oroho and Assemblyman Parker Space, both Republicans from his district, they co-sponsored a bill that Murphy signed this year to give $10 million in grants through the state’s DEP to lakes like Hopatcong, Greenwood Lake and others in the Highland and Pineland regions, for water quality.

Perspective From Lake Hopatcong Area

Hopatcong Mayor Michael Francis says, "No new taxes."

While he shies away from the use of the term "rain tax," Francis told Patch on Friday that a stormwater utility is "another level of government," which sparks another tax through the user fees.

He said Hopatcong is already "doing the right thing," when it comes to protecting the lake, which is state-owned. In terms of the grants from the DEP, Francis pushed back that he'll "believe it when he sees it."

He says when he's approached the DEP about solutions that help to reduce the carbon footprint on Lake Hopatcong, like the use of Triploid Grass Carp to help eat algae, which the DEP disallows, while he says they allow herbicides into the lake.

In Crescent Cove, aeration has been a "great step" in reducing the possibility of Harmful Algal Blooms.

Francis doesn't deny areas of the state like Manville have suffered from the floods, he says in the Northwest portion of the state, there isn't as much of that potential of flooding. In Lake Hopatcong, for one, Francis said the dam can control the outflow of waters.

At the local level, Hopatcong's water utility, he added, cleans and re-routes basins already, something that a stormwater utility would do. Rain gardens around town, including in Witten Park, have also helped. There are groups established, such as the Environmental Commission, working on solutions.

Even $10 a year as a user fee, is something that he says goes up, in terms of a user fee, never down.

"Once you create a new level of government, it never goes away," Francis said. "You can't dissolve it, it's there forever."

Government Needs To "Live Within Its Means"

Wirths says that government, however, needs to live within its means citing the $4 billion in funds that New Jersey received from the pandemic, as well $6 billion in American Rescue Plan funding, potential sources of help.

Oroho, as part of the Joint Budget Oversight Committee, challenged Murphy in a letter about sitting on these funds in August, when the committee stated that only $316,000 had been spent out of the $6.2 billion in New Jersey's American Rescue monies.

In a news release this past Wednesday, Oroho suggested monies sitting in New Jersey’s coffers since May 2021 through the American Rescue Plan, could be used toward “infrastructure improvements,” Wirths telling Patch on Friday that stormwater issues could be addressed with this federal money.

Wirths said there’s “less of an excuse,” after New Jersey has received these funds, to address issues such as stormwater utilities, with New Jerseyans already having been taxed federally for the American Rescue Funds.

A memo on Nov. 23 to the Joint Budget Oversight Committee from Acting Director Lynn Azarchi from the Office of Management and Budget offered American Rescue funding recommendations, which included: another Level 1 Trauma Center for Hackensack University Medical Center for $100 million, Supply Chain Disruption Funding for $40 million, $37.5 million for eviction prevention programming, $25 million toward a greenway acquisition in Essex and Hudson counties, $20 million in funding for Inspira Health to acquire the Salem Medical Center, monies, $10 million for a commuter hub COVID-impacted redevelopment program, $5 million for behavioral health programming in the pandemic to RWJ Barnabas Health and Rutgers University, $5 million for the Wally Choice Community Center in Glenfield Park, $5 million for a state marketing program about the benefits of doing business in New Jersey, $3 million to Atlantic Health for upgrades of the Morristown Medical Center Emergency Department, $2 million for the Great Falls Alexander Hamilton Visitor and Education Center and $100,000 for environmental remediation in Vernon Township.

Reporting contributed by Alexis Tarazzi.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.