Subject:
Title
Request to approve amended cooperative agreement with Fairfax County to share stormwater service district fees
Body
EXPLANATION AND SUMMARY:
On October 28, 2013, Council approved a cooperative agreement with Fairfax County to share stormwater district fees and to develop a coordinated approach to meeting the Chesapeake Bay and other TMDLs. Under the Cooperative Agreement, Fairfax County, in coordination with the towns, would take the lead in implementing large stormwater quality improvement projects and commit to meeting TMDL reduction targets. All parties would proportionally be credited TMDL reductions and would collectively meet the required reductions no matter where improvements are made within the county. The belief underscoring this agreement is that larger regional projects provide the most cost effective and environmentally beneficial approach to improving water quality. Under the agreement, the county would keep 75% of fee revenues for implementation of projects and the Town would receive the remaining 25% for our system maintenance, other MS-4 Program requirements, and smaller Town stormwater projects.
Implementing the joint TMDL Action Plan has resulted in unforeseen complications and workload for county staff due to the fact that each jurisdiction's MS-4 permits are on different cycles. Basically the county would need to update the TMDL action plan about every two years for each permit cycle rather than every five years to coincide with a typical single permit cycle.
The amended agreement changes from a joint TMDL action plan to three separate, but coordinated, TMDL action plans - one for each jurisdiction (Town of Vienna, Town of Herndon, and Fairfax County). The agreement provides for the county to fund these action plans, but for each jurisdiction to be responsible for amending the plans to coincide with each jurisdiction's MS-4 permit. The TMDL action plans and updates will be completed by the county's environmental...
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