The highest-ever water runoff fee levied on Chattanooga business owners this year is the latest blow for a city forced to find a solution to the decades-old problem of clogged pipes, polluted runoff and blocked ditches.
The sticker shock marked an end to a series of temporary measures designed to stave off high bills required to fix the city’s broken stormwater infrastructure, which ran out this year after a four-year grace period.
That means that as of today, Scenic City landowners are paying one of the highest rates in the Southeast, said local business leader Bill Raines.
Raines, the president of The Raines Group who led a blue ribbon committee four years ago to study how to reduce the water bill rate, said his business sits on 11 acres of land and includes four buildings, gravel roads and giant parking lots. That means his water quality fee totals $14,400.
In 2010, the previous City Council gave all nonresidential property owners an exemption on their water quality fee that is based on calculating the owner’s equivalent residential unit, or ERU, for each 3,200 square feet of built or paved space.