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Storm Water Utility ManagementBackground These activities include public education programs, public participation in storm water management functions, controls on storm water runoff from new developments both during and after construction, an ongoing search for illicit discharges into the storm sewer system, and municipal pollution prevention programs such as increased frequency of street sweeping. All parcels, regardless of their location in a watershed, have an impact on our water resources. Pervious surfaces, such as lawns, allow rain to seep into the ground. Impervious surfaces, such as roofs and parking lots, block this absorption, which increases runoff volumes. The City of Bloomington’s storm water management system collects the runoff through a series of gutters, inlets, storm sewers, detention basins, and stream channels. In the older section of the City, the existing sewer systems are mostly “combined” sewers. A combined sewer conveys both domestic sewage and storm water runoff in the same pipe. Why is a Storm Water Management Utility Needed? Most people think storm water runoff is a relatively harmless, natural occurrence, and do not realize it has the potential to pollute one of our most precious natural resources, our lakes and streams. Storm water frequently has high levels of sediment, litter, phosphorus, nitrogen, heavy metals, oil, grease, and organic materials. The City of Bloomington has chosen to take a socially responsible, proactive approach to systematically manage the storm water discharged by our community. By managing runoff and preventing the pollutants from entering the environment, we are striving to avoid the potentially high costs of flooding, future treatment and increased federal regulation. Please visit the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Funding Storm Water Management Historically, a Sanitary Sewer Fund has paid the operating costs of all the sanitary sewers, combined sewers and storm sewers. Charges on the water bill were based upon a customer’s consumption of drinking water. This was an easy system to administer and understand, but there is no direct relationship between drinking water and storm sewer demand. Rather than increase the Sanitary Sewer rates to cover the increasing storm sewer system costs, the City decided to investigate the creation of a Storm Water Utility that would allow storm sewer system costs to be spread among the users in a more equitable manner. City staff reviewed various means of funding this program and determined that funding by property taxes is inequitable because: 1) tax exempt properties generate storm water but would not contribute revenue toward storm water management; and 2) the assessed value of a parcel, which determines its property tax, is not proportional to the parcel’s relative use of the City’s storm water management system. The creation of the Storm Water Management Utility allows the City to establish a major source of dedicated revenue which will adequately support storm water management through a fair and equitable billing system. It is a commonly accepted principle that residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, and governmental customers should pay for their water and sanitary sewer service based on their relative use of these systems as measured by their water meters. The fairest method for determining residential property fees for storm water service is according to the gross size of their parcels (gross area of parcel, including both pervious and impervious areas). Commercial, industrial, institutional, and governmental customers will pay based upon estimates of each parcel’s impervious areas. All fees are in addition to the Water Utility fees. The Bloomington City Council approved the Storm Water Utility fee on April 26, 2004. Credits All parcels in the City containing developed land shall be charged storm water service charges, except pedestrian/bicycle trails, and streets and highway right-of-ways owned by a Township, McLean County, the City of Bloomington, or the State of Illinois. Parcels shall be eligible to receive a storm water service charge credit based upon the requirements of the Bloomington Storm Water Credit Manual. Any credit allowed against the storm water service charge is conditioned upon continuing compliance with the Bloomington Storm Water Credit Manual. Concerns or Problems? Questions or Comments? If you have any questions regarding the City’s Storm Water Management Utility, the Bloomington Storm Water Credit Manual or other activities of the Engineering Department, contact us at:
Storm Water Hotline
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City of Bloomington 109 E. Olive St. Bloomington, IL 61701 - Info: (309) 434-2509 |
