What is a Stormwater Fee?
A stormwater fee is an assessment of the amount of stormwater runoff from an individual property. The fee is based on impervious area (i.e. concrete, asphalt, buildings, roofs). It is the most equitable approach to address stormwater because it is directly related to the cause of runoff volume and pollution.
What is Stormwater?
Stormwater is runoff water from rain or melting snow that flows across the landscape. Runoff flows off of rooftops, paved areas, bare soil, and lawns. Runoff gathers in increasingly large amounts (from puddles, to ditches, to streams, to lakes and rivers) until it flows into the ocean.
In its journey from puddle to ocean, stormwater picks up and transports many of the pollutants it encounters. These pollutants include dirt, pet wastes, pesticides, fertilizers, automobile fluids (such as oil, gasoline, and antifreeze), deicing products, yard wastes, cigarette butts, and litter, to name a few. By carrying all these different kinds of pollution into our waterways, stormwater itself becomes a water pollutant.
