One Clayton, Impermeable
One nation, impermeable
Post- Dispatch Editorial
10/01/2007
Fun facts to know and tell: The first law of ecology is that everything has to go somewhere. One inch of rainfall falling on a roof of 1,000 square feet produces 623 gallons of rainwater running off into the sewers — assuming the gutters aren’t clogged.
A flat-roofed city row house might have a 1,000-square-foot roof. It might have another 200 square feet of patio, deck, driveway and sidewalk, for a grand total of 1,200 square feet of “impermeable” surfaces, from which will run off 750 gallons of stormwater from a one-inch rainfall. The city homeowner pays 24 cents per month to the Metropolitan Sewer District to carry that rainwater, plus whatever other rain falls that month, into its sewers and out into the Mississippi River.
A four-bedroom suburban house with a steeply pitched roof might have a roof area of as much as 5,000 square feet and maybe as much as 500 add-tional square feet of impermeable driveway, deck, etc. One inch of rain falling on 5,500 square feet of impermeable suburbia results in 3,426 gallons of stormwater. The homeowner pays MSD the same 24 cents a month to handle it.
The St. Louis Galleria shopping mall in Richmond Heights and its parking lots include slightly less than 2 million square feet of rooftop and parking lots. One inch of rain falling on the Galleria produces 1,246,000 gallons of stormwater runoff, enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool (50 meters long by 25 meters wide by 2 meters deep) about half way. Among the costs the Galleria pays for handling its stormwater runoff is MSD’s flat fee of 24 cents a month.
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No matter how much water runs off your property, you pay MSD the same flat fee — 24 cents per month — to carry it away. That could be about to change. It should.
MSD’s rate commission has recommended that the sewer district’s Board of Trustees adopt new rates for both wastewater (toilets, showers, kitchens and the like) and stormwater (rain, melted snow).
Wastewater rates have been going up for years, particularly since voters approved a new rate structure in 2004. The rate commission has proposed raising the average monthly residential wastewater charge from the current $22.38 to $25.74 in January 2008. The monthly wastewater rate would rise in annual increments to $36.79 by 2012.
A far more significant change is coming on the stormwater portion of MSD’s bills. The 24-cent flat fee almost surely will disappear, replaced by a charge based on how much impermeable surface a property has. MSD says its average residential customer has 2,500 square feet of impermeable roof, driveway, etc. If trustees approve the new rates, beginning in January that average customer will see his 24-cent stormwater fee rise to $3.11. Annual increases will bring it to $7.26 a month by 2012.
It gets even more complicated; you could say almost impermeable:
Some MSD customers are located in “enhanced stormwater districts,” where special property taxes are levied to cover the extra demands of such things as creek overflows, steep hills and poor drainage. Those customers will see that special property tax disappear. The Galleria, for example, pays $9,776 a month in property taxes for enhanced stormwater handling. The imposition of the new impermeable surface fees will be accompanied by the removal of the special property tax; the Galleria actually will end up paying less in total stormwater costs.
The big problem will come for governmental institutions, schools, universities, churches and other non-profit entities. Because they’re exempt from property taxes, all they’ve been paying for stormwater handling is that 24-cent-per-month flat fee — even though some of them have lots of buildings and parking lots.
Under the new system, Lambert Airport, with its vast expanse of impermeable concourses, aprons, taxiways and runways, is looking at a monthly stormwater bill of $667,000 by 2012 — instead of 24 cents.
Because courts have ruled that MSD’s rates are fees, not taxes, MSD’s trustees can approve rate increases without submitting them for a vote of the people. The trustees, who are appointed by St. Louis Mayor Mayor Francis Slay and St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley, are expected to act on the proposal at their meeting in November.
The new wastewater funds will help pay for the second phase of a $3.7 billion capital improvement program to bring MSD’s operations into compliance with the federal Clean Water Act. Similarly, the new stormwater charges will help alleviate flooding, sewer backups and other problems created when stormwater pushes the sewer system past capacity.
“Nobody likes higher fees,” said Leonard P. Toenjes, president of Associated General Contractors of St. Louis and chairman of the MSD rate commission. “But we think this proposal is fair, reasonable and balanced. It’s the right thing, and the fair thing.”
We agree.
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Comments by Herm Smith
Time to recognize that the BOA decisions of last few years to allow larger buildings on lots than was there before are going to cause really huge MSD charges in the future for Clayton residents. If future buildings are going to be allowed by the BOA to go beyond current city housing allowances for percent of permeability the least the Aldermen can do is require that green roofs that absorb most rainwater be installed. Otherwise, the current ordinance for LEEDS will become a true joke. When I look at the massive impermeable buildings in our area that have been allowed in the past year I cannot even imagine what MSD is going to eventually be charging those new residents and how the newly added flood waters will affect our neighborhood after major rains much less if the policy to tear down and build bigger continues. This continued policy of the BOA is totally irresponsible from an environmental and economic point of view.