From the Muncie Star Press:
In the wake of a 600 percent increase in local stormwater fees, Muncie Sanitary District officials say they're considering ways property owners can reduce their costs.
Under consideration are credits toward the bills of people who install retention ponds, "green" roofs or rain gardens, MSD official Tom Bennington said this week.
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Stormwater fees -- as well as monthly sewage bills -- were increased by the sanitary district board on March 6 to fund a 20-year, $168 million project to separate local storm and sanitary sewers. While average monthly sewage bills were projected to increase by 29 percent, the monthly residential stormwater fee -- collected as part of property tax bills sent out by the county -- was to increase from 95 cents to $6 a month.
For entities with much larger pieces of property, the 600 percent increase amounted to a lot more, although the sanitary district set a limit on total stormwater fees. Structures like Muncie Mall or the former BorgWarner plant, and other facilities of 500,000 square feet or more of hard surface, will pay $14,400, the cap for stormwater fees.
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Bennington noted that Muncie, like other cities, faced legal action to comply with the Clean Water Act of 1972. He acknowledged that when the board set stormwater fees at 95 cents in 2006, perhaps they had set the fee too low.
"We weren't paying enough for six years, and now we have to make up for it," Bennington said.
"We are working on a system, if you do things to decrease your (stormwater) flow, you will get credits," Bennington added. He said those steps could include retention ponds, rain gardens and "green" roofs, which are designed with plantings to use rain water rather than simply shrug it off into sewers.
Details of the stormwater credit system have not yet been released. The next meeting of the Muncie Sanitary District board is set for 5 p.m. May 29 at Muncie City Hall. Meetings are sometimes held in the city hall auditorium and sometimes in the MSD office.
http://www.thestarpress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012205180336
