Funding to aide Coastal Counties with planning assistance and provide two professional positions at DLCD
Contributed by: Mark Nystrom, AOC Energy, Environment and Land Use Policy Manager
July 11, 2016
AOC is asking commissioners to urge support of the Department of Land Conservation and Development’s (DLCD) budget requests. DLCD is requesting that the Governor’s 2017-2019 budget include two Program Option Packages (POPs) that would help to fill the gap left by federal fund reduction. One POP would provide an expanded pot of state funds for planning assistance grants to local governments including coastal jurisdictions and the other POP would restore funding for the two professional positions in the DLCD coastal program that are currently vacant and will not otherwise be filled. Both of these positions provide technical and planning assistance to local governments.
Background:
Up until this past year the DLCD provided planning assistance and technical assistance grants to coastal cities and counties to help them to address the special and sometimes difficult planning needs associated with the coastal environment such as estuaries, beaches, dunes, natural hazards, shorelands, etc. The money came from the federal Coastal Zone Management grant to the state. Every year about $400K was allocated to coastal jurisdictions. While the grants to cities and counties were modest, they were not insignificant and the cities and counties relied on those funds to help support their planning functions. However, coastal communities no longer receive these grants because the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Zone Management grant to DLCD was been cut by 30% or about $675K per year due to Oregon missing non-point source water pollution goals in the coastal zone.
In 1990 Congress amended the Coastal Zone Management Act to require coastal states to adopt a measures for reducing non-point source water pollution in the coastal zone. If a state did not adopt measures that met EPA requirements under that Act, NOAA was required to hold back 30% of that state’s Coastal Zone Management grant. In many states the water quality agency is also the coastal management agency but in Oregon DLCD is the coastal agency while other agencies regulate water quality which has caused some problems. After years of working with Oregon DEQ, the Department of Forestry (ODF), and Department of Agriculture (ODA), the state, via DLCD submitted its program which relied on various regulations in DEQ, ODA, and ODF. EPA found that state regulations under the Oregon Forest Practices Act for protecting water quality in coastal fish-bearing and non-fish-bearing streams from logging did not meet EPA standards required under the 1990 CZMA amendments. The state argued that the OFPA standards did indeed meet EPA requirements and that in any event, DEQ had authority to prevent and clean up pollution in coastal streams. EPA and NOAA didn’t agree but did not immediately make a ruling. Approximately 10 years ago NW Environmental Advocates filed and won a law suit against the EPA and NOAA over this issue forcing EPA to make a decision. The state continued to negotiate with EPA and NOAA about what it would take to approve Oregon’s program under the 1990 Act. However, EPA finally made a determination that Oregon did not meet the 1990 standards and so, under federal law, NOAA was required to withhold 30% of Oregon’s federal coastal grant. That cut began with the federal FY 2015 budget which took effect last year.
As a consequence, DLCD has cut all planning assistance grants and all technical assistance grants to coastal local governments and internally cut at least two professional staff positions. This means that coastal counties and cities have less money to support basic planning functions and no opportunity to apply for and receive technical assistance funds to update ordinances, amend comprehensive plans, inventory wetlands and resources, plan for flood hazards or tsunamis, or partner with other entities to do economic development planning, etc.