Riding out the coming storm over utility fees
Roanoke and its neighbors will have no choice but to take on costly storm water projects. The city is looking for the fairest way to raise the funds.
Superstorm No-way-No-how slammed Roanoke officials the last time they predicted the need to form a storm water utility. The fee to support the utility just wasn’t on anyone’s radar, so city council was slammed with a flood of complaints:
The modest $36-a-year residential fee would swamp modest homeowners’ budgets. Possible thousand-dollar fees would destroy businesses during a recession and would put nonprofits’ and churches’ budgets underwater.
January 24, 2013 - 6:24 AM
OK…explain how this new utility is different from the existing sewer system..you know the OLD utility. The fee starts at $36/yr. It won’t go up will it? I think Va. Beach has one at nearly $120/yr. now.
The existing utility that you are referring to is for wastewater collection and treatment.
This is for storm water, run off and such, that causes flooding and pollutes the streams as it carries with it all the crud that accumulates on surfaces.
Roanoke already spends considerable sums attacking the flooding issues, but due to its topography and old storm water systems, the list of projects is never ending.
On top of that, federal and state regulations now also require that municipalities make more (and expensive) efforts in making sure run off is free of contaminants.
You can look at Roanoke’s PowerPoint presentation by following this link. And if you want further details, watch the briefing. Go here , then click on folder for Roanoke City, then search for the 2 p.m. briefing.
If you skip to page 36 of the briefing, you’ll find a listing of other municipalities’ fees.
You can sit at a stop light on a windy day and see all manner of stuff enter the storm drainage system. And when there is prolonged or heavy rain you can see the run off and the debris and junk in it too.
Paving over every available surface has and will cost us. There is no way around dealing with it and it is in addition to what the utilities already are dealing with having 100 year old pipe, misalignment and freeze/thaw issues, it has to have more of an actual department to handle it.
I agree with this change and the fee. You pave paradise, you pay for it.
No I was referring to the grates in the streets/sidewalks that handle runoff. Things which have been in place for decades. Meals tax, 911 tax on your phones, cell phone tax, cigarette tax, (insert name) tax…but taxrates are lower now than anytime in the last 50 years….I mean what’s a curmudgeon to do??
Bud – the grates in the streets/sidewalks that handle runoff empty directly into the nearest stream. They are not connected to the sewer and never have been. It is not a new system. The problem of trash/chemicals/dog feces/soil/etc. being washed from the roads into the creeks through the stormwater runoff system has existed for decades, but as the population has grown and we have paved more areas it has gotten a lot worse. The soil and trash alone have killed most of the small animals like baby insects in the creeks. Also, as we have paved more areas the existing grates and run off areas are not big enough to handle the increase in water that runs off of the increased pavement, so you have them clog up with debris and back up stormwater into the streets. Essentially it is time to clean up our mess and clean up the streams and ensure the streets stop flooding at the same time. That’s what the new utility is meant to do. It’s part of the Clean Water Act.
Just so everyone knows….When the light changes and the car at the front of the line doesn’t move right away, it’s just Sandi watching stuff go down a storm drain.