Winston-Salem Proposes Storm Water Fee Increase Needed for Bigger Pipes

Winston-Salem, N.C., officials say that higher storm water fees are needed to replace undersized drain pipes and reduce flooding.

Storm water fees would go up 20% under the city's proposed budget for 2006-07, according to the website Journal.com.

The increase would be used to reduce a backlog of about 30 storm pipe upgrades over the next 10 years, said Greg Turner, Winston-Salem's assistant-city manager in charge of public works.

The fee increase would add more than $1 million in revenue to the city's proposed $6.25 million storm water management budget.

The city is also proposing a 5% increase in water and sewer rates, meaning that the average bill would rise from $46.93 to $49.28 every two months, officials said.

City and county utility officials say that the increase is needed to meet debt-service requirements of recently approved bonds, as well as to support repairs to existing sewer mains and to meet new state and federal regulations for wastewater treatment plants.

Turner said that the additional money generated by the fee increase would allow city officials to get rid of problems over the next 10 years caused by undersized drainage pipes that back up during heavy rains and flood adjacent property.

Turner said that the pipes were large enough when they were put in years ago, but because of the increase in parking lots and roofs brought on by development, more water is running into the storm-water system.

Replacing the pipes could also save street money in future years by cutting the number of collapses and washouts caused by overwhelmed pipes.

Source: Journal.com