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The Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority was bombarded with inquiries about a new stormwater fee Thursday, in part because the bills that arrived in the mail this week were somewhat vague.
For existing authority customers, the stormwater fee was lumped in with the regular charge for wastewater treatment, leading many to wrongly conclude the entire bill was for the new fee, said Donna Gillis, the authority’s public relations and regulatory liaison.
Initial authority plans to itemize the stormwater fee separately were scrapped due to space limitations on the postcard bill that is designed to contain mailing costs, Gillis said.
The authority already had invested in the additional expense of mailing advance stormwater billing notices to all fee payers in December, explaining the amount of non-absorbent impervious area (IA) calculated for their parcels and the resulting fee amount.
“This is also going to be the billing format going forward, so we didn’t want to differ for the first mailing and then change it again for the next one,” Gillis said.
Recognizing the confusion caused by the new bills, Gillis said the authority will be posting a copy of a bill and detailed explanation on its website, www.wvsa.org, by Friday morning.
Impervious area
The fee stems from the authority’s agreement to handle a federal Susquehanna River pollution-reduction mandate on behalf of 32 municipalities. It requires less sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus washed into the Chesapeake Bay over the next five years.
The cornerstone of the new stormwater fee is IA, which is the non-absorbent and developed portion within each real estate tax parcel.
Calculated using aerial photography and mapping data, this square footage includes the footprint of structures and paved parking lots, patios and sidewalks.
Starting Jan. 1, property owners must pay these annual fees based on the following IAs: 100 to 499 square feet (tier one), $12; 500 to 6,999 square feet (tier two), $57.60; 7,000 square feet or more (tier three), $1.70 for each 1,000 square feet of impervious area.
Bills for the approximately 68,900 mostly residential property owners in the first and second tiers were mailed this week. The nearly 8,400 primarily commercial and industrial sites in tier three are set to receive their bills in mid-January, although payment amounts will date to Jan. 1, Gillis said.
However, retroactive credits will be available this spring for qualifying fee payers for the installation of rain barrels, porous pavement or pavers, stormwater retention basin modifications and other projects to collect and filter runoff.
Bill example
Without a fee breakdown, some math is required to check bills.
Here’s an example using an actual bill for a Plains Township property owner:
The bill gives the owner the option to make one of two payments by Feb. 19 — $69.40 for the first quarter (three months) or $272.05 for the entire year at a 2 percent discount.
Because the wastewater charge for residential units remains at $55 per quarter, this owner was billed $14.40 more for the stormwater fee in the first quarter.
The key is in a tiny box at the top of the bill that notes the owner is in “SW-Tier 2,” or the stormwater IA group that must pay $57.60 annually. That’s how the authority came up with the first-quarter charge of $14.40 — $57.60 divided by four.
For the full year payment calculation, the $220 wastewater fee ($55 multiplied by four) was added to the annual $57.60 stormwater fee, which totals $277.60 with $5.55 off for the 2 percent discount.
Sudden spike
The influx in calls and emails about the bills prompted the authority to post this message on its website Thursday afternoon:
“Important Call Volume Alert! We are experiencing a significant increase in call volume and website emails. All inquiries and comments will be fielded as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience and understanding.”
In addition to questioning the fee amount, many requested further research to verify the accuracy of their IA, Gillis said.
There also were plenty of complaints about the new fee, and the authority stressed it was a mandate, she said.
Officials in the impacted municipalities determined it would be more cost efficient to participate in the authority’s regional plan. Municipalities face fines if they don’t meet the federal requirements, which include detailed maps of all stormwater systems and annual progress reports.
At an authority meeting last month, Hanover Township Manager Sam Guesto commended the authority for taking on compliance for municipalities.
“It’s a large undertaking,” Guesto said at the time. “In Hanover Township, I could tell you our taxes would be impacted if we did it on our own.”
Stormwater fee bills were mailed individually for property owners that have on-lot septic systems or reside in municipalities that don’t rely on the authority for wastewater treatment, Gillis said.