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Steidel and Beschler: “Why we need a Stormwater Utility”
04/07/2010 2:41 PM by John M
Bob Steidel, Deputy Director DPU, and Chris Beschler, Director DPU, gave a presentation on the new Stormwater Utility at the last 7th District meeting. You can download a copy of their presentation (PDF).
Would a storm water utility reduce the number of times the City of Richmond dumps raw sewage into the James River when the drainage system overflows due to rain/snow? If so, I am all for it. I saw in article in the Times-Dispatch that stated a really high statistic on the frequency of raw sewage dumps into the river and I was absolutely appalled. I don’t remember the exact number but is was a huge. Admittedly, this was exacerbated by the large amount of snow/rain we received this year. Nevertheless, we have to do better. The river is our biggest asset and we are completely destroying it and the Chesapeake Bay.
Agreed. I hope everyone recognizes why the fee is being applied. The how is the question in my mind. The fee needs to be applied with fairness in mind.
Keep in mind that Mayor Jones is also raising utility and water rates.
@Michael
Richmond has what’s known as a Combined Sewage Overflow (CSO) sewage system. It’s pretty gross. The idea is that sewage and water run in the same pipes which is fine during normal dry days. But when a bunch of water from a rainy day, storm or whatever drains in, the excess gets dumped unfiltered into the closest waterway (aka. The James)
Wikipedia has a good graphic/info on it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_sewer.
Naturally the CSO system actually helps Richmond to violate EPA water quality standards and has been sued by the agency to bring our sewage systems up to code. What’s great about this utility fee is it actually provides a revenue source to accomplish this goal.
Michael and all:
If the city is using funding to help reduce the amount of stormwater from entering the CSO, the answer is yes. This very well can be a good thing. However, there are other sections of the city that the stormwayet just enters local streams and creeks without being cleaned too.
There are a lot of pollution issues associated with untreated stormwater in our urban communities. Check out the following resource to learn more. http://www.acb-online.org/pubs/projects/deliverables-254-1-2005.pdf
As long as funds are being used by the city to address those issues, I can support the utility fee.