When city sewer officials say Duluth’s streets may not be safe, they’re not talking about crime.
They’re talking about the Minnesota city’s century-old storm sewers, which are so dilapidated that some sections of road may be at risk of collapsing because pipes have washed away or broken beneath the surface.
The problem is a lack of maintenance funds. There’s just no more money in the city’s general fund.
The solution, says a citizens task force, is for the city to establish a storm water utility, much like one implemented 11 years ago in St. Paul and dozens of other cities nationwide.
If implemented, home- and business owners would see a new charge on their monthly sewer bill, with the revenues going toward maintenance of the city’s storm sewers. The same method is already used to pay for the city’s sanitary sewer system, which is a separate system that carries waste from toilets, dishwashers and businesses.
For the average homeowner, the added charge might mean paying another $3 to $4 per month. The tab could run in the thousands for some Duluth businesses, depending on the estimated amount of rainwater that runs off their land and buildings.
“It’s not going to put anybody out of business but some will be hurt,” said Craig Carlson, owner of Carlson Bros. Mechanical Contracting and chairman of the storm water management task force.
The task force–a mixture of business, city, school and church officials–was put together in 1996 to study the possibility of establishing a storm water utility.
The City Council has previously struggled with the storm water problem, culminating in a controversial ordinance that would have required some Duluth home owners to disconnect their foundation drains and install expensive sump pumps. That idea was dumped in 1994.
After struggling with a number of funding options and talking with consultants, the sometimes-divided task force concluded that a utility was the most equitable way of raising money for storm sewer maintenance.
The task force’s work is the culmination of a years-long effort by city sewer officials to obtain more funds for maintenance and further efforts to reduce storm water runoff.
In 1997, just $40,000 was appropriated from the city’s general fund to help maintain 259 miles of storm sewers capped by about 9,000 manholes. Years ago, the department received two times that amount. By contrast, user fees raise about $4 million annually to maintain sanitary sewers, said Al Rankin, an engineer in the sewer department.
Such neglect comes at a price, Rankin and other city officials say. Through July, 1997, city crews tallied 3,994 barricade days throughout the city. Barricade days are calculated by counting the number of days portions of city roads have to be blocked off because of damage.
Then there are the hidden costs of crumbling storm sewers. Each time a storm sewer leaks or caves in, dirt surrounding the pipe is washed away by storm runoff the next time it rains.
“Guess what that dirt is holding up–the street,” Rankin said. “If you talk about the bad streets we have, 60 percent of that problem I believe is related to sewer problems, because what’s happening underneath is affecting surfaces up above.”
Sewer officials cite an incident last spring, when a Duluth patrol officer drove over a section of Fourth Avenue East near East High School and felt the earth move–literally.
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City crews later discovered that a large section of storm pipe had all but vanished, leaving water to wash away dirt under the road.
With nothing under it, the street had become unstable. If a school bus or other heavy vehicle had crossed the road before it was blocked off, the road might have collapsed under the weight, Rankin said.
There are also environmental concerns. Poor storm water management leads to more pollutants pouring into Lake Superior and area streams. Federal regulators are zeroing in on the problem in an effort to eliminate one of the last major sources of surface-water pollution.
Cities the size of Duluth will soon be required to keep closer tabs on their storm water and do a better job of educating the public.
A storm sewer utility wouldn’t solve all such problems immediately. As a starting point, task force members are suggesting the council aim to fix one mile of storm sewer annually, Carlson said. The cost would average about $3 million each year. Ultimately, the council could choose to establish a higher or lower budget, or choose another funding method altogether.
How much home- and business owners would pay through a storm sewer utility depends on the amount of rainwater they contribute to the system.
Environmental engineers have determined that the more impervious surface a property has, the more rainwater will run off into the sewer system. Impervious surface consists mainly of roofs, driveways and parking lots.
Typically, a storm sewer utility bills homeowners and businesses the same rate using a formula based on average square footage.
But the square footage of impervious surface adds up fast for businesses or institutions that have large parking lots and roofs, such as a shopping mall, school system, church or airport. Those businesses and institutions would be hit hardest.
The task force will recommend the city provide credits to businesses that have installed retention ponds, grassy areas or other mechanisms for capturing runoff.
Though some will pay more than others, an environmental engineer and storm sewer utility consultant for the city says other methods of raising money distribute costs unfairly.
Nonprofit organizations, which also contribute to the runoff problem, wouldn’t pay, said Stephen Sedgwick of Camp Dresser & McKee Inc., a Jacksonville, Fla., environmental consulting company.
Conversely, properties that have little or no impervious surface would see their taxes go up, even though they don’t contribute substantially to storm runoff.
But under a utility, properties pay in proportion to their contribution to the runoff problem, Sedgwick said.
More than 300 cities in the United States have established storm sewer utilities.