What do stormwater rates fund?
Stormwater charges fund the construction and maintenance of the City’s drainage infrastructure to help prevent flooding from runoff. Homes, businesses, and concrete are impervious surfaces that impede water from naturally soaking into the ground and requires additional infrastructure for proper drainage.
What is polluted stormwater runoff?
Stormwater runoff is the number one cause of stream pollution in urban areas. It is created when rain falls on roads, driveways, parking lots, rooftops, and other paved surfaces and picks up the chemicals, oil, grease, fertilizers, animal waste, litter, pesticides, and other toxins from our cars and buildings.
How is the stormwater utility funded?
The Stormwater Utility is funded throgh monthly service charges paid by all customers owning developed property in Yelm. This charge is included on the utility bill customers receive every month. Grant opportunities from state and federal agencies are pursued to help fund planning efforts and capital construction projects.
We do not maintain facilities located on private property, or facilities that fall under the jurisdiction of other governmental entity. However, the City must ensure that all private facilities are maintained and operating as designed to prevent impacts to your groundwater and drinking water.
What is a stormwater management system?
Roads, driveways, parking lots, rooftops and other surfaces prevent water from soaking into the ground or into our landscape during storms. Stormwater control measures are designed to manage the polluted water from contaminating drinking water sources, manage treatment of contaminants and control any potential flooding.
What is the city's responsibility for stormwater?
The City is responsible for managing all aspects of stormwater within city boundaries. The city operates and maintains drainage facilities located within the public right of way or public easements.
Why are stormwater rate adjustments necessary?
From 1999-2017, the stormwater utility collected a monthly service charge of $2.50 per single family residency. Multi-family is charged $1.25 per unit, and Commercial properties were charged a flat fee of $4.00 plus an additional fee based on the amount of impervious surface on the property. This fee had not been changed since it was adopted into Yelm Municipal Code in 1999.
Stormwater utility revenues did not cover expenses. The Street fund, which is a General Fund account, was used to subsidize stormwater maintenance activities (approximately $200,000 annually) instead of funding federally required stormwater operations and maintenance.
Other important components of this program include:
Why is stormwater a problem?
Stormwater is a problem because it is often polluted and, if left untreated, can impact health by contaminating aquifers— which contain drinking water, and fish habitats. Untreated stormwater contains toxic metals, organic compounds; and bacterial and viral pathogens. Virtually all of our creeks, streams, and rivers are harmed by stormwater runoff. Stormwater is the leading contributor to pollution of waterways.
