Council will mull imposing new fees

A stormwater fee for Grovetown residents could be part of a plan city officials will discuss at a Monday meeting.

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Grovetown City Council members will meet for a work session after a 6 p.m. city council meeting to study a charge for residents for maintenance of the city's stormwater system. The session is open to the public.

The state Environmental Protection Division requires that the city have a stormwater management program designed to control stormwater pollution. That plan must include public education, stormwater controls and development regulations, along with testing, monitoring, inspections and enforcement.

A fee would be similar to the one Columbia County officials implemented in 1999.

"You've got to fund it somehow," said Joe Neal Jr., the city's stormwater system chief operator.

Funds for the system cannot be taken out of the city's general fund, Neal said. The stormwater system must be self-sustaining.

Michael Woods, the city's Public Works director, said the city's stormwater system is growing as new developments are completed and new systems, along with other utilities and streets, are taken over by the city.

The city's stormwater system includes everything needed to collect, treat or dispose of storm, flood or surface drainage water, including detention ponds, drains, pipes, streams, culverts, wetlands, ditches and catch basins.

"All that money will be going toward the personnel and any type of equipment we'd have to have to keep all this up," Woods said.

In the work session, city officials also will discuss how to structure and bill the fee.

Woods said every municipality with a stormwater utility imposes the fee differently. Some charge a flat rate to all customers while other governments, such as Columbia County, base the fee on how much impervious surface -- including roofs, driveways and concrete -- is present on each property.

Neal said he hopes to get the fee for the system set and the system functional within a few months.