City Council Approves Stormwater Utility Rate Ordinance On First Reading
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Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
Warsaw City Council Monday approved an ordinance on first reading that establishes a stormwater rate. The council will need approve the ordinance on second reading during its May 5 council meeting. The council, at its March 17 meeting, failed to approve the ordinance as it was previously presented when the motion died for a lack of a second. The city does not have a stormwater fee to assist with stormwater utility costs. The fee will be used to pay for costs of escalating sewer mandates. Warsaw has been identified as a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System under the Clean Water Act of 1972 and is required to comply with the Phase II Stormwater Regulations as implemented by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. The ordinance states the cost for stormwater charges is $2.95 per residential unit per month. The bill for non-residential real estate is based on actual measures of the amount of impervious or “hard surface” that is on the property. It would be billed at $1.05 base fee plus $1.90 per each 3,500 square feet. Teresa Sailor, Warsaw stormwater coordinator, presented the ordinance during Monday’s meeting and said there is additional language in the ordinance that covers appeals of equivalent residential units and credits. ERU is a unit value which is equal to the average amount of impervious surface area for a single-family home within the municipal separate storm sewer system jurisdiction of the city of Warsaw, which is established at 3,500 square feet of impervious area. For ERU appeals the ordinance states if in the opinion of any user, the ERU assigned to the user’s real estate parcel is inaccurate in light of the number of utility accounts, or impervious surface area of the property, or whether the user is entitled to a credit, the user must have the right to contest the ERU determination and the stormwater user fee assessed. The ordinance states a dispute or appeal of a rate or credit determination for stormwater user fee assessment is not a valid reason for non-payment of the originally assessed stormwater fee. For credits the ordinance states as the purpose of the stormwater utility is to improve water quality, and that purpose is accomplished through both public education and infrastructure, the council may adopt a list of qualified credits in a future resolution that encourages users through incentive for best management practices that exceed the most current regulatory stormwater development requirements. Cary Lewis, Lewis Salvage, said during Monday’s meeting he was opposed to the ordinance as it was presented and suggested the council delay a vote on it. Lewis attended the last council meeting as well and said he wanted a direct discharge credit which would mean because he lives at the edge of the city and his industrial water discharges into the ditch, and that he would be credited for that impervious surface. He said he looked at other cities who have and don’t have credits for stormwater utilities. “We’re looking for at least a partial credit which I think is more than reasonable. We’ve gone above and beyond to handle our stormwater,” Lewis said. Sailor said there is not someone currently who could administer credits. During Monday’s meeting, Nate Bosch, Center For Lakes & Streams director, spoke about the importance of the stormwater utility as it relates to lakes and water quality. “Lakes have been important historically in the community. We have data going back to 1875 studying lakes in our area and there have been negative things since then that have happened to the lakes and they are not as clean as they once were,” Bosch said. Bosch said anything that can be done in the community to help promote lakes and streams for the youth and community members is positive. “Economically, we have done research to show the lakes as an economic benefit bring in about $15 million every year through property taxes that are solely due to the fact we have lakes in Kosciusko County,” Bosch said. Mike Klondaris, councilman, thanked the stormwater office for its work on the ordinance and supported the credit language in the ordinance. “This is great language that gives people the opportunity to plead their case. This is a hard decision, but we’re mandated to do it and I think this ordinance is fair for everybody,” Klondaris said.
