Ironton, Ohio residents may soon see an additional $15 charge added to their monthly water bills, but not the $15 fee everyone has been arguing about recently, according to a report in the Ironton Tribune.
Not to be confused with the much-debated $15 per month municipal fee, the city council will look at a draft of the long-anticipated storm water utility fee. The proposed fee will generate more than $1.2 million a year but it will not help the city with its ongoing budget crisis.
Expected to cost residential households between $13 and $15 per month initially, the proposed fee will cost commercial and industrial companies much more depending on the amount of runoff surface they own.
The monthly fee is to allow the city to adopt and implement the Environmental Protection Agency-mandated Combined Sewer Overflow plan and to maintain and improve the city's stormwater system as required.
Developing the CSO plan by the December deadline is projected to cost more than $860,000 based on a current proposal by E.L. Robinson Engineering. Actually implementing it could cost the city $20 million over the next 20 years. The entire purpose of the plan is to determine the volume of pollutants that go into the Ohio River and to minimize untreated discharges coming from the city's 53 miles of sewers.
Source: The Ironton Tribune
