We've had a stormwater usage fee as part of our water bill for a long time. It reflects the investments being made to upgrade run off collection systems so that we stop flushing raw sewage into the Willamette every time we get a rain storm (which, this being Oregon, is quite often). With the completion of the "Big Pipe", we now hardly have any spills into the river at all and people can start using the river again.
There is an ongoing campaign to get residents to disconnect downspouts and an increasing usage of rain barrels to conserve water in our wet season for use in irrigation during the dry season. Now, the Portland Water Bureau is a totally messed up institution with, historically, some of the worst management I've ever seen. There are myriad problems with the org that have taken a long time to unravel and still need a hell of a lot more done. But the stormwater charge is a smart one and the work that has been done with it is gradually transforming the Willamette back into a wonderful, usable, central part of Portland. Cheers, Judah On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 8:35 PM, Jerry Barnes <[email protected]> wrote: > > A controversial new tax for the amount of rain that falls on homes has been > imposed by an environmentally-friendly governor. > > The storm management fee will be enforced in the US state of Maryland > after a decree from democrat leader Martin OMalley. > > It was passed by the state legislature last year to raise revenue to comply > with an order from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean-up the > Chesapeake Bay estuary, according to the MarylandReporter.com > > Fees will be calculated on the surface area of properties as the theory is > that roofs, driveways and carparks create more potential for drainage > problems and water contamination. > > Councils are supposed to determine how much to charge per square foot, but > the fee depends on the size of the building and surrounding paved surfaces. > > Montgomery County democrat senator Richard Madaleno said the state could > not avoid paying the expense because of deadline from the Environmental > Protection Agency. > > > http://metro.co.uk/2013/04/11/governor-imposes-rain-tax-on-homes-3592504/ > > J > > - > > Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation. > - Henry Kissinger > > Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, > go out and buy some more tunnel. - John Quinto > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:362728 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
