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Owners of approximately 8,250 area parcels have not paid their stormwater fees, prompting the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority to start advising some that action will be taken if they don’t satisfy the debt.
The authority mailed delinquency notification letters this week to one group — 2,400 residential property owners categorized as “stormwater only” because they don’t also rely on the authority for sewage services, officials said Thursday.
After stating the past due amount, including penalties and interest, the letter informs recipients the authority is authorized to take appropriate legal steps to collect payment, including filing a lien against the property owner and/or filing a lawsuit to recover charges due.
“If these additional steps are taken, the authority may also be entitled to attorney’s fees and costs,” the letter says.
The letter said the communication serves as notice the authority will be sending lien letters to delinquent accounts on or after Oct. 1. Payment must be made on or before that date to avoid enforcement action and additional costs, the letter said.
Authority public relations/regulatory liaison Donna Gillis clarified Thursday that the subsequent lien letters won’t involve the actual filing of liens. Instead, the letters will set a 10-day payment window before a lien is filed.
Similar notification letters will be sent to delinquent commercial stormwater-only customers in October, Gillis said. Around 2,100 parcels are in this category, according to analysis of the authority’s latest billing records through Sept. 11.
Water shut-off
The remaining 3,750 fee-delinquent parcels belong to existing authority wastewater treatment customers, which means the recourse for nonpayment would be shutting off water service instead of liens, the authority has said.
Authority officials have not yet issued notification letters or taken action to cut water for these properties, Gillis said.
Lehman Township’s 600 delinquent parcels were not included in the statistics because the municipality will no longer have a stormwater fee due to its state waiver from compliance with a federal mandate.
Based on nonabsorbent impervious area, the fee applies to 31 other municipalities that signed up for the authority’s regional mandate compliance plan. The fee will fund street sweeping, catch basin cleaning, rain gardens, detention basin alterations and other projects that reduce sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus in the Susquehanna River and Chesapeake Bay, officials said.
The authority issued a statement Thursday saying it is committed to completing the program funded by property owners in all participating municipalities.
“Our regional approach is the most cost-effective way to meet unfunded mandates, and our program is reliant on payments from all billed property owners,” it said. “The late payment notices were generated to ensure property owners with delinquent stormwater management accounts were aware of their obligations and ensuing actions for non-payment.”
In total, the authority has collected $6.63 million in fee payments from 67,777 parcels so far this year, or 88.4 percent of the 76,660 billed. However, $110,195 must be returned to 1,209 of the payers from Lehman Township under a new agreement for the municipality to remain in the program on a limited basis for a municipal payment of $28,037 per year.
The authority had temporarily extended the payment deadline for first and second quarter residential bills earlier this year, saying the delay would give customers more time to become acclimated with the new fee and billing process, address unpaid balances and request property inspections that may reduce their fee.
Those paying on time also avoided a 10 percent penalty.