(9/14) At its September 12 meeting, the Emmitsburg Town Council approved the implementation of an annual storm water management utility fee of $20 per equivalent residential unit (ERU), based on the amount of impervious surface on publicly and privately owned property.

Impervious surfaces do not allow storm-water to infiltrate the ground, including streets, roofs, sidewalks, patios, parking lots, and more. Impervious surface areas are the number of square feet of horizontal surface covered by buildings and other surfaces.

The fee implementation follows study results and recommendations from the Environmental Finance Center of the University of Maryland, authorized by the council several months ago. While the study recommended a $47 per ERU to fully fund the program, the council decided to set it at $20. The storm-water management utility fee will be billed and collected quarterly as part of the water and sewer bills.

At its March meeting, Commissioner Frank David acknowledged the importance of storm water management to ensure the health of the Chesapeake Bay; "but from a small-town perspective it is difficult ...until we address everything else, we can’t expect people to start paying higher dollar amounts for something like this," he added.

The council determined that it was in the best interest of the public to allocate the storm water management utility fee program costs to all property owners based on impervious surface area measurement of each property. Council members said that those with higher amounts of impervious surface area contribute greater amounts of storm water, or pollutants, to the town stormwater management facilities and therefore should carry a proportionate burden of the cost.

One ERU is defined as 2,932 square feet of impervious surface on a recorded lot, which accounts for approximately 20 percent of town residential properties, according to Town Planner Zachery Gulden.

If an impervious lot area is more than 100 square feet but less than or equal to 1,466 square feet, the lot is assigned a value of 0.5 ERU. If the impervious area on a lot is greater than 1,466 square feet and less than or equal to 4,398 square feet, the lot is assigned a value of one ERU. This area accounts for approximately 69 percent of residential properties, Gulden explained.

No fee is assessed if the impervious area is less than or equal to 100 square feet.

Residents can contact the town office for more information about their property’s ERU determination.