12-5-11: The Role of a Stormwater Utility

Over the next decade, all states in the Bay area watershed are going to be required to go on a pollution diet, meaning the amount of nutrients that runs into the Bay every day will need to be reduced.  Last year, Maryland was required to submit a watershed implementation plan, describing exactly how the state will do this.

That diet will be passed from the state on to local jurisdictions, meaning that individual counties and towns are required to have practices in place to reduce runoff to the bay by 2025—though Maryland has agreed to do this by 2020.

Some of of these nutrients come from stormwater runoff—water that goes down into drains from lawns and parking lots.  Certain jurisdictions, including Montgomery County and the cities of Rockville and Annapolis, have created funding mechanisms to help pay for the reduction of such runoff.  Now, Anne Arundel County is considering a measure—the bill, which would create a fee for all property tax owners, is scheduled to be debated tonight.  It’s being proposed by Councilman Chris Trumbauer, Democrat of Annapolis, who talks about it with Sheilah.