New Hampshire Bulletin has a story about the city of Dover may become the first place in New Hampshire to have a separate utility for stormwater, the stuff that runs off parking lots and roofs into sewer systems when it rains. The whole story is here.
Property owners typically pay for stormwater systems via their property taxes. If a municipality forms a stormwater utility, that infrastructure is no longer funded through general funds, and instead becomes its own fee, just as residents and business owners pay for water, sewer, or trash.
Under a stormwater utility model, property owners pay based on the amount of impervious surface on their land, such as paved roads, parking lots, roofs, and other surfaces that water cannot easily penetrate. In that sense, municipal planners argue, it’s a more equitable mechanism to fund stormwater infrastructure.
Climate change is, as we all know, making heavy rainfall more common, which makes stormwater control more important. Giving places an economic incentive to handle their property’s runoff intelligently is a great move
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