Rain may carry price for Dade City denizens

"People think, "It's just rainwater,' " the city manager says. But it isn't, and street sweeping alone costs about $2,000 a month.

By CHASE SQUIRES, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 16, 2002

DADE CITY -- City commissioners are thinking about putting away money for a rainy day.

Commissioner Hutch Brock asked the city staff Tuesday night to start examining stormwater assessments -- fees charged to homeowners and businesses to cover the rising cost of keeping stormwater runoff pollution out of groundwater.

Brock said Wednesday that he's not advocating a new fee but said the city has to look at the facts and see if one is needed. It's something revenue consultants have discussed with commissioners, and it's something other cities have enacted or are looking at, he said.

Last year, New Port Richey set a runoff assessment of about $40.32 a year per homeowner. Commercial properties pay the same $40.32 for every 2,629 square feet of impervious surface. The fee applies to everyone: churches, schools and low-income housing.

Zephyrhills City Manager Steve Spina said staffers there are studying a similar fee.

Runoff is something Dade City Director of Public Works Ron Ferguson said the federal government is increasingly interested in. The day is coming, he and others predicted, when the Environmental Protection Agency requires Dade City to purify stormwater from its streets before allowing it into rivers and canals.

"People think, "It's just rainwater,' " City Manager Doug Drymon said. "But it's the dirt that has oil and antifreeze and other things in it that they are cracking down on."

The first line of defense is street sweeping, Drymon said. That cost already has jumped, according to city figures.

Although manpower costs aren't broken out on the city budget, the cost of just disposing of the tons of road dirt scooped up was $5,972 in the 1999-2000 fiscal year. In the 2000-2001 fiscal year, the cost was $6,223. In the first six months of this fiscal year it has cost $11,012, after Pasco County increased the cost of getting rid of the dirt -- considered a hazardous material -- at a county dump.

Street sweepers, which wear out in five to seven years, cost up to $125,000, Ferguson said.

Drymon said the government already is forcing the city to test the water quality of nearby canals and ponds affected by street runoff. If the EPA begins forcing the city to purify that water, with miniature treatment plants, the cost to the city will soar, Ferguson said.

"I'm not saying we're going to do this, that we're going to have a fee," Brock said. "But we need to talk about this."

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