Chrystal Bartlett, PIO N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources

Stormwater Fees

Many North Carolinians began paying stormwater fees during the past decade. Their numbers will grow with time. Stormwater is not new, but charging management fees as a separate line item is a recent development. More than 36 cities, ranging from those the size of Charlotte and Raleigh, to smaller cities like Mount Holly and Oxford, currently charge fees. Residents pay tipping fees for sending garbage to landfills. But because few people understand stormwater, many folks are unsure what, exactly, their fees pay for. Here are a few examples:

Stormwater runoff happens when rain or snowmelt runs over land, roads, roofs, parking lots and other hard surfaces. Some rain sinks into land, replenishing groundwater. What doesn’t sink in joins runoff from roads, roofs, and parking lots, and flows untreated to the closest creek, stream, or river. It accumulates oil, fertilizer, pet waste, herbicides, litter, and eroding soil on the way. The more paved surfaces, like those you find in neighborhoods and industrial areas, the more runoff occurs. Places that did not flood before, now do. Algae booms, fish kills, higher water treatment costs, and revised flood plain maps are some unsavory results.

Cities and counties have a host of solutions available, but none are free. That’s where the fee comes in. Most stormwater systems date from the 1950s, but did not grow along with new development. Pipes designed to carry a certain amount of water are now forced to carry much more. Mapping, repairing and replacing this infrastructure—much of it below paved roadways—is neither easy nor cheap. On the other hand, floods are expensive, too. Given a choice, do you want a bigger pipe, or flooded roads and homes?

Stormwater management also requires land, but easements are expensive, as are higher insurance rates, dangerous travel, and rising water treatment costs. Strategically placed easements allow constructed wetlands, detention basins and rain gardens to slow and clean polluted runoff.

Compensating for human behavior increases the price we pay for stormwater management. Street sweepers, sediment and erosion inspectors, leaf collectors, and pet waste stations keep water cleaner. Excess or poorly applied pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, as well as oil that drip from poorly maintained vehicles, enter storm drainsand eventually make their way into drinking water supplies. Keeping polluted stormwater out of our drinking water supplies requires machinery as well as regular maintenance. It makes sense if you consider the cost to pay someone to monitor streams for illegal discharges and map stormwater systems or engineer, install and maintain existing stormwater systems.

With recent national and state surveys showing most fees are too low to pay for these things, many municipalities find themselves in a bind. Development increases land values, which is good. But the same growth causes more polluted runoff, which is bad. Faced with fierce opposition to so-called “rain taxes,” it’s easy to see the dilemma of many municipalities. Some towns and cities increase general taxes. Some municipalities charge fees. Others do nothing. Fees may be based on commercial or residential status or the amount of hardened surfaces per lot. Some municipalities that ignore stormwater problems now face fines because their failing systems pollute state waters.

Where stormwater utilities offer fee-reducing credits, developers respond with cluster housing, green roofs, cisterns, local retention ponds, stream buffers, and reduced curb and gutter. Reducing fees for towns that reduce their demand on the collective infrastructure makes sense. Legislators in North Carolina know how important it is to manage stormwater runoff. In fact, members of North Carolina’s own General Assembly are constructing a cistern outside the legislative building so stormwater from the building can be used later to irrigate nearby landscaping.

Managing stormwater requires funds, so fees are one way residents take responsibility for the amount and quality of water they send to stormwater systems. Perhaps a little knowledge can reduce the resistance.

Would we respond differently if our bills were labeled the “freedom from flooding, clean water to drink, swimmable, fishable lakes and streams for our kids fee?” I’d like to think so; wouldn’t you?

Chrystal Bartlett currently works as Stormwater Awareness & Outreach Coordinator for the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources where she recently launched a new stormwater Web site, www.ncstormwater.org. She is also a freelance voiceover talent and image management consult. Before working at DENR, she worked as a DJ, news reporter and at several ad agencies. Chrystal graduated from N.C. State University with a B.A. in Communication and an M.A. in Public Relations. Chrystal Bartlett lives and writes in Raleigh, NC. When not at her 'paying job' she does freelance voicework and image consulting. She can be reached weekdays at 919.715.4116 or at chrystal.bartlett@ncmail.net.

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