STORMY DISCUSSION
Authority ponders question of a ‘stormwater fee’
POTTSTOWN >> In the wake of a severe thunderstorm and flash flood that caused more than $1 million to property owned by the borough, the Borough Authority again took up the question again of charging a fee for managing stormwater.
The discussion was, as it often is, at the urging of member Tom Carroll.
During the July 11 storm, Authority Manager Justin Keller said the Manatawny Creek watershed was hit with about six inches of rain in a single hour.
And although the Schuylkill River rose to 13.2 feet from the storm, the water and sewer treatment plants, which are both located along the river, don’t start having problems
“I don’t want to spin my wheels and spend staff time putting something together that the court ultimately throws out.”
— Justin Keller, Pottstown Borough Authority manager
until the river reaches 13.6 feet, said Utilities Director Brent Wagner.
Other borough and property owner assets were not so lucky.
In the wake of that damage Carroll said the borough authority should again look at the idea of charging a fee to manage stormwater.
“I don’t think council looks at it that closely. We are more affected. Other towns are levying a fee to help deal with it,” Carroll said.
The fee is based on the theory that the more impervious surface a property has, the more stormwater it sends into the system, and the higher the fee should pay to help maintain that system.
One model for funding these stormwater control measures, also aimed at keeping pollutants out of streams, is to charge property owners by the amount of stormwater that leaves their property.
The groundwork for that was laid when municipalities have adopted new requirements for containing and infiltrating stormwater back into the ground before it hits the streets and streams.
Pottstown and West Pottsgrove adopted their versions of such ordinances in 2014.
In 2015, the authority paid $56,000 for a “Stormwater Master Plan,” that was supposed to inventory all the borough’s stormwater intakes, arches, outlets and storm sewer pipes.
But the borough has held off on taking the next step.
Firstly, “I’m not anxious to be the first town in the area to start charging for stormwater,” Authority Board Chairman Jeff Chomnuk said in 2015, worrying it could discourage commercial investment.
But there is another So much stormwater flowed through Pottstown’s overloaded system during the July 11 storm, that water was pushed out of the system, not into it, forcing this manhole cover at East and North Hanover streets out of its fitting.
worry — a lawsuit.
When West Chester Borough adopted just such an ordinance, West Chester
University refused to pay, saying the stormwater fee was a tax and, as part of the state higher education system,
it was tax exempt.
And when West Chester sued, the college sought to have it thrown out of court
on that basis. But that argument failed and on Monday, a court ruled the suit could go forward, Authority Solicitor Vincent Pompo told the authority members Tuesday.
Currently, Pottstown is waiting to see how that lawsuit is resolved, said Authority Manager Justin Keller.
“I don’t want to spin my wheels and spend staff time putting something together that the court ultimately throws out,” he said.
Carroll argued the time spent waiting for the lawsuit to be resolved could be spent preparing for the eventuality that the new fee could be imposed, but Keller said that work is already done.
Just one day before the July 11 storm hit, state and local officials held a press conference and toured stormwater facilities in Pottstown as an effort to promote Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed $4.5 billion RestorePA program as a way to pay for repairs and improvements to the 150-year-old system.
As it stands, both methods of addressing the stormwater problem are unresolved.
In the meantime, it seems, the storms will keep coming.
As Dan Kelly reported recently:
• National Weather Service rainfall statistics show that this June was the sixthwettest since 1869. The database spans 150 years.
• June ended the wettest 12 months on record: 75.36 inches.
• It has been the thirdwettest first half of a year: 31.36 inches.
This article first appeared as a post in The Digital Notebook blog.
“I don’t think council looks at it that closely. We are more affected. Other towns are levying a fee to help deal with it.” — Tom Carroll, Pottstown Borough Authority member