Uh oh! Missed one, G. Mark!
Factory feedlot consultant and Speaker of the House G. Mark Mickelson will want to take a look at Senate Bill 25. Requested by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, SB 25 removes a provision from SDCL 34A-2-117 that exempts construction dewatering facilities, stormwater discharge systems, and feedlots from an annual fee for facilities permitted under the national pollutant discharge elimination system program.
SB 25 Section 3 creates a new stormwater fee schedule, charging our own Department of Transportation $25,000 each August and charging other construction projects based on the area of land disturbed:
| Disturbed Area (Acres) | Fee ($) |
| Less than 5 | 100 |
| 5 to less than 40 | 250 |
| 40 to less than 80 | 500 |
| 80 or more | 750 |
Expect Speaker Mickelson or his CAFO-consulting business partner Paul Kostboth drop by Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources when this bill comes up to encourage the committee to reject this burdensome and overreaching regulation of rural South Dakota’s only hope for economic rescue.
G. Mark probably already knows about this bill. It isn’t a big deal. It’s probably long past time that these fee exemptions were scuttled. The program costs to regulate these fee exempt activities have been shifted onto community and industrial permittees. Now everyone pays their own way. Generally, EPA prefers costs for NPDES permits be fairly administered. These are, after all, federal EPA programs that the state receives authority and money to administer.
Speaking of disturbed. how many acres is the Ogalalla Aquifer, just in case?