Roanoke’s stormwater utility manager, Dwayne D’Ardenne, said city residents have been slow to pick up on the credits they can earn towards the stormwater management utility fee that is now collected every month from residents and businesses. On the Roanoke City website there’s a link to an idea book, showing how landscaping or collecting rainwater for example to help slow down rain runoff can lead to a credit of ten percent or more – up to fifty percent in fact – against that utility fee, which is being phased in over three years.
Since July 1, new federal and state regulations that require water runoff quality to be improved before it goes back into the watershed has meant localities like Roanoke have had to devise ways to raise money for mitigation purposes. Roanoke City is charging a small monthly fee; for now Roanoke County has worked the extra cost into its annual budget, although it could resort to a utility fee in the future.
D’Ardenne is hoping that a promotion now underway will spur city residents to start thinking of ways to combat runoff: recently students at Fishburn Park Elementary, which is the city’s environmentally-focused school, painted 12 large rain barrels in a project undertaken in conjunction with the Roanoke Arts Commission. The brightly colored barrels feature images of sea turtles and dolphins, for example.
Until October 27, city residents who “like” the rain barrel post on the Roanoke City Stormwater Facebook page will be entered into a drawing. Twelve names will be chosen after that and those selected will receive the rain barrels, which are to be placed at the downspout of a roof’s gutter system. The rain collected after a storm can be used to water a lawn or plants, or even for car washing.
“It’s about keeping stormwater on [the] property,” said D’Ardenne; “it used to be that everyone wanted to put stormwater in a pipe and move it downstream but that just created problems. Right now we’re trying to encourage folks to keep stormwater on their property.”
That process of slowing down the runoff allows residents to be eligible for a ten percent credit on their stormwater utility fee, noted D’Ardenne.
“They had a lot of fun,” he said about the Fishburn Park students and the rain barrel project. “They learned a lot, which was part of the goal … if they learned something about rain barrels they take it home to their parents, and that’s a good way to get information back into the home.”
Stormwater utility fee credits of up to fifty percent can be obtained if Roanoke property owners were to follow all of the mitigation tips noted on the city website. Those who take the city up on any of those procedures send in an application and a picture to verify that they have installed a runoff barrier, in order to be eligible for the credit.
“It’s still pretty slow but I anticipate things will pick up as we get more awareness campaigns out there – that hey, this really isn’t difficult to install a rain barrel [for example],” said D’Ardenne.
Giving away a handful of them via a Facebook contest should help fuel the fire in his estimation. “If we can do it anybody can do it – and you can save some money.”
– Gene Marrano
