If you read my previous message correctly, I was making light of people’s so called “facts” and suggestions that made no sense at all.

I find it appalling that you can even attempt to compare your “misery” of paying $3 a month for the stormwater waste that comes off your property to that of a child with cancer. If the biggest misery in your life is to complain about a $3 a month charge to pay for the stormwater runoff your property generates, then you are one very, very lucky individual.

You’re missing the big picture Mike. People have to pay money to a company that provides them no service on the meaningless basis of pretend imperviousness. I think every lot should have a percolation test done and be charge by the percolation rate. If somebody wants to build cistern, they should get credit for it. And it’s not $3 a month for most people as you appallingly insinuate. Mine is $9.00 a month and will increase to $27 over time - for nothing. MSD took the easy way out on this. If MSD needs more money they should have to prove it to the voters.

Everyone should call MSD and make them prove that MSD’s calculations are correct on their impervious area.

For a different viewpoint on all this, some might want to read the Show Me Institute’s blog: http://www.showmedaily.org/2008/05/gonna-have-to-s.html.

The majority of people posting on this topic seem to have issues with the validity of the new stormwater rate. These are fair points and we’re responding to those concerns as best we can when questions come in. Anyone that disagrees with the validity of the rate is certainly free to take legal action or whatever means they feel necessary. However, the rate complies with all state laws, and is in accordance with the responsibilities MSD has been given over the years. Additionally, MSD’s Rate Commission (which was approved by area voters in November 2000) met twice over the last 14 months to review the new funding structure. This process was publically advertised and the media covered the issue of rates extensively over that timeframe. Unfortunately, the public hearings that are a part of the Rate Commission process and are setup specifically to hear public comments were poorly attended. It’s impossible to say if these comments would have resulted in a different rate structure if they had been made at the public hearings. The point though is that the public needs to take a proactive part in MSD’s efforts to manage wastewater and stormwater issues on behalf of the 1.4 million residents we serve. That is why public hearings are held – to give the public a voice in how we run this organization. We’re not an Ameren or a Laclede, so we don’t have a profit motive. We are a government agency that, based on our best professional judgment, is taking the appropriate steps to manage stormwater and wastewater issues in our community. And we are not faceless bureaucrats – we too live in St. Louis City and County, pay the same rates, and have a vested interest in what happens to our community.

What is being missed in this conversation, when viewed in a broader scope, is the subject infrastructure maintenance. As a nation, we are ignoring the need for infrastructure maintenance and rehabilitation. The steam pipe explosion in New York City and the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, both occurring last summer, are glaring examples of this. On the wastewater side of our business, MSD maintains the 4th largest sewer system in the United States, on par with the one in Los Angeles, California. However, our service area has about a third of the population that is served in LA. This means we have fewer people than we would have if we lived in a different area to support and pay for such a massive system. Beyond just the basic scope of our system, there are ever increasing state and federal regulations we must comply with, which are requiring a decades long, multi-billion dollar program to address.

On the stormwater side of our business, we have a stormwater sewer system that measures almost 3,000 miles and is separate from the sanitary sewer system. All total, our community’s annual stormwater management needs are in the $80 to $85 million range. Under the old stormwater funding structure ($0.24 per month charge to each customer and a variety of property taxes that are now eliminated), we raised about $24 million. (This gets into some arcane details about how the funding was setup, but only about $11-12 million of that figure was available for stormwater sewer maintenance.) The resulting funding gap of about $60 million meant that there were vast stretches of the stormwater sewer system that we could not maintain. Additionally, there are areas where erosion, overland flooding, and other stormwater issues are not just nuisances, but are literally threatening to destroy homes. Just driving around the last several weeks and observing the impact of the rains we have endured, it is clear there are stormwater needs in our community. Under the old funding structure and on an area wide basis, MSD was responsible for just maintaining the sewer system. Over time and under the new funding system, we’ll be able to start addressing the overall scope of the stormwater issues our community has to deal with. It may take years and perhaps decades, but at least we can now move forward with a plan for addressing these issues.

This and my earlier post are not meant to be pithy. Rather, it is meant to let you – the public we serve – know that we have no intention of hiding from these issues or your comments. We take them to heart and utilize this information in what we do. However, we are going to be investing billions of dollars in this community over the next several decades, and MSD will be having a profound, yet unseen impact on our area’s infrastructure. There are going to be times when not everyone agrees on what specific actions/steps need to be undertaken. When those times occur, we have to take what we believe is the responsible action in fulfillng the role we are charged with by our community.

We live in far west St. Louis County on 3 acres. This is a rural area and there are no storm sewers anywhere around here. I felt sorry for the MSD customers that were to be billed for storm sewers and was glad that we are not MSD customers. This is the first I heard that we will be billed. It is not right for them to bill everyone just because it rains on us. This STINKS!!!!

Lance, you AREN’T just an ordinary guy with the same interest as the rest of us. The success of your job performance is gauged by the public’s acceptance of current MSD policy AND MSD employees have an obvious benefit in a huge multi-million dollar increase in their revenues. It would be wonderful if the rest of St. Louis employers could impose mandatory fees on the rest of its residents to increase their profits, benefits, pay structures and job security as well.

Just because MSD has dictated this astronomical increase within the confines of the law DOES NOT mean it is equitable, fair, reasonable, neccesary or in the best interest of St. Louis residents. Just because you had some public meetings, DOES NOT mean that you listened or made reasonable adjustments in your plans. MSD didn’t listen and they don’t care about the public’s opinion……just look at the result.

It sounds like MSD wants to say they need this money to ‘manage’ all of St. Louis’s creeks and streams. Maybe we can look forward to MSD trespassing on all the creeks of property owners and putting unsitely mini River Des Peres trenches on our properties? How about letting us manage our own creeks and streams and runoff? MSD wants to duplicate services that should already be provided by building/subdivision planners, excavators, landscapers and the Army Corp or Engineers. Maybe the police should ticket all those who dump their trash in leaves on the streets/in the sewers and cause occasional stoppages? Where are all these tremendous amounts of homes being threatened because of the erosion and flooding you speak of??? Maybe St. Louis shouldn’t allow home building in flood-prone, normal water run-off areas? The Federal Government even figured that one out.

Maybe MSD should learn to DO MORE WITH LESS, like the rest of us have to do right now! At least Ameren and Laclede are regulated by the Public Service Commission and their increases have been closer to reasonable. MSD on the other hand has done the outrageous because it thinks noone can stop them! Everyone must protest loudly to Dooley and Slay and all our State government!!!

I’m just curious, of the people who claim that they receive no services from MSD and that all the rain falling on their property goes directly into streams and creeks, do you keep the channel clear all the way to the rivers? Do you fully treat the water and check for contaminants prior to releasing it into the river? Will you be held accountable when the EPA comes knocking?

As for where the money will go, MSD doesn’t have enough money to do all the maintenance now. Do you seriously expect free maintenance to justify paying for it in the future? I realize it’s a big jump in the bills, but when was the last time stormwater rates were increased? I suppose there would be less sticker shock if rates increased every year instead of every 20.

Spec (Lance), I’m glad you aren’t in charge of anything important because you make no sense. If any business ever suddenly had a 20 yr. ‘cost adjustment, they would be out of business in a flash. The public cannot afford those kind of increases.

MSD does not treat stormwater as you state and MSD has never trespassed onto my stream beds to do any kind of maintenance. I do my own maintenance and large groups of environmentalist volunteers regularly haul trash out of our streambeds and creeks in this area (hundreds of volunteers were in the Spanish Lake creeks last week doing much more than MSD could ever dream of doing)

If the EPA requirements and results of things such as the Clean Water Act are unreasonable, then we will fix that too. I say we pay for an indep. evaluation of MSD funds, practice and staff and figure out some efficiencies that will accomplish the same goals with a lot less money.

I agree. Don’t pay the StormWater portion of your MSD bills! It used to be called Highway Robbery, now we will have to call it Street Sewer Robbery!

While I sympathize with Rose Dawson, the blog left out the most important part of the so-called tax. The shopping mall owners and their ilk have gotten away with causing major stormwater runoff because of their huge parking lots and roofed areas for years and have payed next to nothing to the sewer district to compensate. Homeowners have taken up the slack up until now. The new system for charging customers is fair inasmuch as the ones causing the storm water run-off are being charged by the square foot. If you add a driveway addition, you’re causing more run-off. Fair is fair.

I do admit, there’s a minor glitch considering some folks are still on septic tanks. Perhaps the district will compensate them somehow but remember, even if they’re on a septic tank, their hard surfaces are still causing additional storm water added to the system.

Maybe someone should ask the people living downstream feel about their bubbling brooks turning into torrents and flooding their basements because some fool build another subdivision or shopping mall upstream.

Jom, till you understand and know what commercial businesses have been paying in their Real Estate Portions for commercial use of MSD (like I do) you cannot say that we have not been paying for our proportionate share of the runoff so that the PUBLIC can use our parking lots and so that we can provide this convenience versus the cheaper option of having them park in a grass lot that would cost us nothing. Why don’t we have the highway and street departments pay MSD since they are the biggest contributor of runoff??? Maybe charge everyone up river as well???