General Assembly approves higher environmental fees

Higher fees related to environmental regulation have been approved by the General Assembly.

House Bill 175 passed the Senate June 18 by a 15-5 vote with one absent after passing the House June 12 26-14 with one absent. The bill now goes to Gov. Matt Meyer to sign.

HB 175 updates fees required by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control under its Divisions of Air Quality, Waste and Hazardous Substances, Water, and Watershed Stewardship.

New fees include: 

• Construction, operation and variance permits for natural minor equipment that creates air emissions, emergency generators and complex natural minor permits under the Division of Air Quality
• Hazardous waste facilities, underground storage tanks, aboveground storage tanks, accidental release prevention program, gas dispensing facilities, solid waste facilities, recycling and composting facilities, and scrap tire disposal businesses under the Division of Waste and Hazardous Substances. 
• Licenses for installers, inspectors and operators, wells, water system allocations, wastewater systems, and subaqueous permits or leases under the Division of Water
• Sediment and stormwater plan review and beach construction under the Division of Watershed Stewardship.

“Delawareans rely on DNREC to protect our air, water and coastline, and I think we can all agree that they should have the resources they need to do that job well,” said Rep. Debra Heffernan, D-Bellefonte, House sponsor of the bill. “It’s been more than 30 years since DNREC’s fee structure was last updated, and since then, the cost of providing their essential services has increased significantly. HB 175 will give DNREC the tools and funding that they need to protect our environment effectively and optimize the permitting process, all while making sure that the entities who use DNREC’s services are the ones paying for those costs, not the taxpayers.”

The projected revenue for these programs with the proposed fees is $7.2 million, compared to only $1.9 million if fees were left unchanged.