Residents question MSD stormwater charges
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| Erica Burrus photo/ Since almost all of their 65-acre cemetery is made up of grass, Mount Hope Cemetery owners feel they are being charged unfairly by MSD for stormwater runoff. |
Those coins represent money being paid to MSD Impervious Stormwater rate charges showing up since March on Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) bills.
The charges were the topic of an MSD presentation to the St. Louis County Council Committee of the Whole last week.During the meeting, MSD officials said the charge of 12 cents per 100 square feet of impervious area averages out to about $3 per customer per month.
The charge is assessed on areas of a residential, commercial or industrial property that does not absorb stormwater runoff, or is impervious to water, such as roofs, decks, garage roofs, paved driveways and parking areas, MSD Executive Director Jeffery Theerman said.
However, Barry Litzsinger and his father, Bud Litzsinger, who own Mount Hope Cemetery in the 1200 block of Lemay Ferry Road, think the $400 bill they get from MSD is too much.
Their 65-acre cemetery is made up of grass-covered grave sites and the property handles runoff from surrounding properties, they said.
"From the standpoint of water, we are taking all the water from Lemay Ferry Road over to behind Steak n Shake, all that water comes over here," Bud Litzsinger said.
A creek carries stormwater through their property to Telegraph Road, but MSD has refused to help them keep it clear of debris or help them stablize the banks.
and carries water
"In the past, we've asked them and they said "Oh, that's private property.'"
"They won't help us maintain that, it goes from here to Gravois Creek and then to River Des Peres and to the Mississippi," Bud Litzsinger said. "If we asked them to help us with erosion problems, I don't think MSD would give us any help."
Both Litzsingers said they would pay the $400 bill and also send a letter stating that "we're being extremely overcharged."
Bud Litzsinger said they don't disagree with MSD charging to fix the stormwater problems.
"We just feel that we're being charged a tremendous amount more than what we should be," he said. "We'll continue to pay them, but we just would like a justification from them on how they arrived at those particular numbers."
Theerman said the 12-cent rate will escalate by 2014 to 29 cents per 100 square feet, and called the charge "a good measure of how development contributes to the stormwater issue."
MSD has 2,980 miles of stormwater system and it has had little if any maintenance since the district's inception, and revenue raised through the impervious charge will go to repairing and maintaining the stormwater system, he said.
The charges went into effect in March, Theerman said, and replace a charge of 24 cents per customer, plus various property taxes, that were imposed prior to March 2008.
Lynne Johnson, who lives in a 150- year-old farmhouse in the 15100 block of Conway Road in Chesterfield, told the committee her property has a septic tank and a ditch running through her property that drains stormwater, as well as a pond of about 4,000 square feet that takes in much of the stormwater they get. They have over 100,000 square feet of property and only 2,400 of it is considered impervious, she said.
"It seems there must be a better way of charging my fee, do it as a percentage, or as a ratio of impervious versus permeable area," Johnson said. "We have a lot of permeable area that is flat and we take a lot of stormwater. It's not a good way for us to be compared to a Walmart that has almost all impervious area."
