Committee reviews S.212 to create general permits for water and sewer connections
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Summary
Lawmakers and agency staff discussed S.212, which would direct the Agency of Natural Resources to create a general permitting pathway for potable water and wastewater connections to speed and simplify routine development permits; members pressed agency staff on fees, municipal roles and system capacity.
Speaker 1 introduced S.212 as legislation directing the Agency of Natural Resources (ANR) to develop a general permit for routine potable water supply and wastewater system connections, a change intended to simplify permitting and reduce costs for common projects.
The bill grew from Act 47 (2024), Speaker 1 said, and would let licensed designers certify that a connection meets published standards instead of requiring a full individual permit review each time. Speaker 4, an agency technical presenter, told the committee the general-permit approach aims to reduce review time and costs for low-risk connections while preserving ANR oversight for larger or higher-risk projects.
"If you're meeting these standards — if you are checking these boxes — then you can get the permit," Speaker 4 said, describing the certified-designer model the bill endorses. He added that ANR would publish a manual with diagrams and clear criteria so designers and municipalities know when the general permit applies.
Members focused on three practical issues: fee levels, municipal partial delegation, and how to determine system capacity. Speaker 4 confirmed municipalities that perform technical reviews can continue to charge local fees but would need to submit a $100 administrative filing to ANR for inclusion in the agency database. ANR's suggested general-permit fee tiers discussed in the hearing included $250 for design flows up to 2,000 gallons per day (a typical single-family home), $2,500 for flows between 2,000 and 6,500 gpd, and a higher tier for very large projects; transcript remarks also included inconsistent higher figures invoked during discussion (for example, references to $13,500 and $55,000) without clear attribution.
Speaker 4 and committee members repeatedly flagged capacity as a separate technical constraint: even where a general permit applies, a municipal or state review may still be needed when a system's capacity is unclear. The bill preserves ANR authority to require an individual permit for large or unusual projects that could strain infrastructure or water resources.
The committee asked ANR to return with technical witnesses and the data behind recommended fee levels. Speaker 1 said DEC/ANR staff and groundwater-division staff (invoked in discussion) would be asked to appear at a future meeting to explain the fee structure and the department's modeling.
The committee did not take a vote. Members directed staff to schedule agency testimony and to provide the draft manual or guidance ANR would publish under the bill.
Next steps: the committee will invite agency staff and other witnesses to return with fee justifications, capacity-assessment guidance and any modeling used to estimate permit-processing cost reductions.
