City Considering Creating Storm Water Utility

Petaluma is considering creating a storm water utility district to raise funds to maintain storm drainpipes, pump stations and other flood control measures to reduce major floods.

The city lies just 30 feet above sea level and has experienced numerous significant floods over the past 20 years, including in 2005, 1998 and 1996 that resulted in damage to both homes and businesses.

But to pay for its storm water operations, it has borrowed money from another city fund. The city is also currently in the midst of legal fight with former Councilman Bryant Moynihan who is suing the city to get them to stop using sewer ratepayer monies on the general fund expense of storm drain maintenance.

(The city has spent $89,000 just this year alone defending itself.)

City officials say it's common for municipalities to use storm water funds, which come from ratepayers, to pay for expenses, but they agree that a more permanent solution needs to be found. One idea is to create a new utility district that would charge residents a user fee to raise money for flood control.

Dan St. John, who directs Petaluma’s Department of Public Works and Utilities, explained that creating a new district would not require any new capital or infrastructure if voters approve it in November 2014.

“It’s just a way of generating dedicated funding,” St. John said. “Much in the same way we charge ratepayers for processing wastewater when they flush the toilet, it would charge them because runoff has to go somewhere.”

As example, St. John said Petaluma could charge residents $4 a month, or $48 a year, to handle runoff, which would generate about $1.3 million to handle storm water maintenance.

But with the city considering a sales tax measure in the 2014 election, it’s not clear how a separate user fee would fare.

Former City Councilwoman Tiffany Renee says city leaders need to think about runoff as not just a problem but a source. Renee, who is part of a new group called the Watershed Alliance to Enhance the River, said Petaluma should focus on implementing green infrastructure concepts such as rain catchment systems, permeable surface sidewalks, green roofs and more trees that would absorb rainwater instead of filling up local waterways.

“When rain flows through a gray infrastructure (pavement, concrete), a lot of money is wasted basically going down the drain,” Renee said Monday night at a special workshop put on by the city to study the issue. “Petaluma’s storm water challenges will require us to think differently about how we manage storm water run off.”

Renee said that many cities have saved money by implementing green infrastructure concepts and reduced pollution in local waterways and encouraged the city to do the same.

Click here to see Renee's full presentation about how to implement more green infrastructure in Petaluma

What do you think? Would you support a storm water user fee of $48 a year? What do you think Petaluma can do to reduce storm water runoff?

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the nature of Moynihan's lawsuit. The lawsuit contends that the city is illegally using ratepayer money to pay for general fund expenses. Patch regrets the error.