City News

Rincon is urbanizing and developing economically, which leads to changes in land use. These changes can cause sanitary sewer overflows, erosion, and water quality impairment due to increases in:

•Stormwater discharge rates.

•Stormwater volumes.

•Pollutant loads.

Rincon must comply with federal, state, and regional permit requirements for stormwater pollution control. Additionally, the city will be responsible for the costs of:

•Compliance with permit requirements.

•Operations and maintenance.

•Water quality management.

•Development of impact mitigation.

•Improved resiliency.

The problems associated with increased stormwater runoff require a proper stormwater management program to balance economic growth with the goal of preserving natural, environmental, historic, archaeological, and recreational resources for the benefit of present and future generations.

WHAT IS A STORMWATER UTILITY?

It’s an organization and financial entity that establishes a formal plan of action and an implementation strategy to secure the funding necessary to operate a local government’s stormwater management program (GAEPD, 2008). This is widely understood to be the most fair, equitable, and stable method for funding a local stormwater program. Property owners pay into the utility for stormwater management services based on the amount of stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces. 

Stormwater utility information:

•179 jurisdictions in the southeastern U.S. have stormwater utilities.

•62 stormwater utilities established in Georgia are known to charge fees.

•5 jurisdictions in coastal Georgia have stormwater utilities: Hinesville, Garden City, Statesboro, Richmond Hill, and Brunswick.

WHY A STORMWATER UTILITY?

Stormwater management includes numerous costs including compliance costs, operation and maintenance of existing stormwater infrastructure costs, and water quality management costs, among others. Stormwater management is currently paid out of the City’s general fund, which is also used to pay for municipal services that do not have dedicated funding sources such as public safety, fire protection, and other programs and services. The stormwater utility is a user-fee based funding source that will provide a consistent revenue stream, and all funds generated are allocated to the stormwater management program. The utility is not designed to support stormwater management independently and will be supplemented by additional funding sources.

FEE STRUCTURE

The City has selected the most common method for setting the utility fee, which is the Equivalent Residential Unit (ERU), which is the median impervious area of improved single family residential properties in the City. A review of imperious area on single family residential properties revealed the median impervious area is 3,000 square feet.

1 ERU = 3,000 sq. ft

All single family residential property owners will be charged one ERU per month

Non-residential single family residential property owners will be charged 1 ERU per month for every 3,000 sq. ft of impervious surface on their property.

The rate for 1 ERU $2.00. The average rate among Georgia municipalities is $4.25. Utility rates for coastal Georgia municipalities are provided in the following table.