Storm-water fee proposed in Arundel
As pressure mounts on local governments to tackle polluted storm-water washing off their streets and parking lots, politicians are grappling with how to pay for it.
Anne Arundel County Council member Chris Trumbauer - whose day job is as the Riverkeeper for the West and Rhode rivers - has decided to make another run at financing the needed pollution controls through a fee levied on all property owners.
Trumbauer introduced a bill Monday night that would tack a $35 annual fee on every homeowner's property tax bill ($25 for condo and townhome owners) to pay for reducing storm-water runoff. Nonresidential properties would be assessed a fee based on the amount of pavement and rootfops they have.
The fees would go into a dedicated fund that can only be spent on storm-water controls, and could not be raided or diverted, according to Trumbauer. They'd be spent on retrofitting storm drains, replacing pavement with porous pavers and creating rain and roof gardens, among other things.
"This bill is a much-needed investment in Anne Arundel County,” Trumbauer said in a statement announcing the bill. “The money from this dedicated fund will go directly back into our communities, creating local jobs and cleaning up our waterways." The bill, 79-11, is due for a public hearing Dec. 5.
Nearly one-third of the nitrogen pollution getting into the Chesapeake Bay from Anne Arundel County is estimated to come from urban and suburban storm-water runoff washing fertilizer, pet waste and other organic debris into local streams and coves.
The County Council narrowly rejected a similar fee proposal four years ago, but Trumbauer points out that five of the seven council seats (including his) have turned over since then. The president of the council, Dick Ladd, who represents the Broadneck Peninsula, is a cosponsor of Trumbauer's bill. It also has the backing of the Annapolis and Arundel chamber of commerce.
The other thing that's changed is that Arundel and the rest of the state's localities are being pushed by the state to reduce storm-water runoff to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency's "pollution diet" for the Chesapeake Bay. County officials projected their "watershed implementation plan" - which would include fixing leaking septic systems and upgrading sewage plants, in addition to storm-water controls - could cost a whopping $2 billion.
Every locality is, or will be, wrestling with similar funding challenges. DelmarvaNow.com reports that Ocean City's town council heard a proposal to start charging a storm-water utility fee to raise $10 million the Atlantic beach resort is projected to need over the next decade to deal with its storm-water issues.
A task force appointed by Gov. Martin O'Malley to tackle septic and wastewater treatment issues is mulling recommending doubling or even tripling the "flush" fee now paid by every homeowner and business. The task force meets again this morning in Annapolis to weigh its recommendations for action in the next General Assembly session. Doubling the current $2.50 monthly fee is said to be needed to cover a shortfall in funds needed to upgrade the state's largest sewage treatment plants; tripling it to $90 a year has been proposed to help localities pay for storm-water controls. But even if that flies, it would only cover about half the estimated costs Arundel, Ocean City and the rest of the state's cities, towns and counties face.
(Baltimore Sun file photos)
