The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NORSD) wants to become its region's storm water utility, monitoring new construction sites, policing illegal dumping and addressing flood-promoting erosion problems. Currently local communities tackle storm water problems on an individual basis.

"Storm water doesn't respect jurisdictional boundaries," said Darnell Brown, sewer district board chairman and chief operating officer with the city of Cleveland. "Somebody has to do this."

The NORSD is preparing to present its case to Cuyahoga County, Ohio, mayors and city councils. When Julius Ciaccia, Cleveland's utility director, becomes the sewer district's executive director this November, the district will do just that.

At present, individual communities pay for storm drain maintenance, stream bank erosion repairs and the like with general property and income tax funds. They also issue and reject permits that allow industrial companies to discharge water into area waterways. With a regional approach, however, these communities would no longer have to invest tax dollars in storm water management projects. The sewer district, rather, would charge property owners a user fee based on how much of their land contributes to runoff issues.

"Communities could do it on their own and raise taxes, or they can get into a utility that can raise funds," Ciaccia said. The district utility would also take over handling construction site inspections and permit processing.

In 2008, communities must be able to demonstrate to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that they have storm water management plans in place to protect area bodies of water, said Dan Bogoevski, an environmental planner with the Ohio EPA. In addition to meeting EPA regulations, Northeastern Ohio leaders see a storm water district playing a role in controlling flooding.

Ciaccia said the sewer district has estimated that an average Northeastern Ohio homeowner would pay approximately $5 a month toward a storm water fee. The price tag would be significantly larger for businesses, churches and other properties with large runoff-promoting parking lots and roofs.

The sewer district commissioned a study, released in 2006, that found 513 specific storm water problems in locations along rivers and streams in Cuyahoga County and adjacent communities. These problems, according to the study, would cost an estimated $336.8 million (in 2006 dollars) to remedy. Ciaccia said the sewer district, if it can get most of the study area's communities to join, would have about $23 million annually to devote to addressing these storm water issues.

A number of regions in Ohio--the cities of Columbus and Cincinnati, as well as Lake County--have already established storm water utilities. Now the NORSD must sell the idea to its local communities.

"I think we are all looking at the appropriateness of some central agency taking responsibility for storm water," said Bay Village, Ohio, Mayor and Cuyahoga County Mayors and Managers Association president Debbie Sutherland.

Source: Crain's Cleveland Business