Phosphorus regulation could cost $7 billion

State to seek delay from EPA, but others cite costs of pollution

The price tag of complying with new regulations designed to reduce algae-causing phosphorus in Wisconsin waterways could be more than $7 billion over the next 20 years, state officials reported on Tuesday.

Wisconsin officials will use the estimates when they ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to slow implementation of new state phosphorus regulations, arguing the financial burden on industries and cities would be prohibitive.

But environmentalists said the state’s figures ignore the costs of pollution on water resources and recreational pursuits such as fishing and swimming.

“We will be looking at this very closely to make sure it doesn’t undermine the important work to reduce phosphorus that is already going on in the state,” said Amber Meyer Smith, director of programs and government relations for Clean Wisconsin.

The Gop-controlled Legislature passed legislation in April 2014 that would extend the timeline for factories and wastewater treatment plants to meet stricter standards that took effect in 2010. Those standards set a first-ever numeric

limit on how much phosphorus could legally be released to waterways.

For some parties to get a time extension of up to 20 years, Wisconsin would need to show the EPA that regulations would be an economic hardship on Wisconsin.

The EPA oversees state water regulation authority.

Sewage treatment plants and industry are major sources of phosphorus, but so are fertilizer, cattle manure, grass clippings and debris that washes off streets and parking lots. Along with other nutrients such as nitrogen, they feed algae that foul many Wisconsin lakes.

In Green Bay, nutrient pollution has been the source in recent summers of a massive oxygen-depleting dead zone.

On Tuesday, the state Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Administration released a report on potential costs.

The agencies said nearly 600 business and municipal wastewater treatment plants would need to make massive investments to remove more phosphorus from their effluent.

Using private consultants, they estimated $3.45 billion in capital costs from 2016 to 2035. Factoring in the cost of long-term borrowing, it would raise the price tag to nearly $7 billion, according to estimates.

Other expenses for oper- ation and maintenance would increase the costs by hundreds of millions of dollars more, the estimates show.

“If the end goal is water quality improvement, this is the vehicle to do it,” said Michael Bruhn, the DNR’S deputy assistant secretary.

But Meyer Smith of Clean Wisconsin said that the study failed to take into account the cost of polluted water. She noted that a study by the DNR in August 2012 found $18.8 million in net benefits from Wisconsin’s original phosphorus regulations.

Paul Kent, an attorney representing municipal sewage treatment agencies, said the 2014 law doesn’t roll back standards in the regulations.

“This isn’t a 20-year getout-of-jail-free card,” Kent said.

Companies and municipalities with burdensome costs must reduce their phosphorus load until they meet the new limits.

In addition, polluters would have to pay a fee of $50 per pound of phosphorus they produced until reaching the new limits. The money would help pay for projects designed to cut runoff pollutants in watersheds. One key target: fertilizer and manure from farms.

There is much less regulation of runoff pollution than individual sources such as a sewage treatment plant. Regulators believe the biggest improvements would come from reducing phosphorus and other nutrients in streams, rivers and lakes.

“We know that most of the phosphorus is coming from nonpoint sources and it is difficult to regulate,” Bruhn said.

A public hearing will be held Tuesday in Rothchild in Marathon County before the DNR sends the proposal to the EPA.