Posted on 10/02/2013 6:25:44 AM PDT by EBH
Ohio's 8th District Court of Appeals ruled last week that storm water does not fall within the definition of waste water and blocked the sewer district from collecting a fee used to control runoff.
The Cleveland Division of Water, which handles billing for 85 percent of the district's customers should have the fee deleted in time to keep it off statements that arrive next week, Jennifer Elting, a spokeswoman for the sewer agency, said in an email. Customers do not have to pay the fee if their bills come before then.
The district bills customers who live outside the Cleveland utility's service area and will remove the charge on its own.
The quarterly fee ranged from about $9 to more than $27, depending on the amount of impervious, or hard, surface on property. Opponents called the fee an unvoted tax.
(Excerpt) Read more at cleveland.com ...
We really need to push back on the water nazi’s. Glad to see some small success.
I bought my house about 15 years ago.
My quarterly water bill used to be under $10 and the sewer was around $30. I often thought it wasn’t worth writing the check for the water bill as it was so small - I’d rather just send one check for the whole year at once.
Fast forward to today. I now have a wife in the house, and the city now includes garbage pickup (which used to be “free”) on the same combined bill as water & sewer.
That bill is now $300 a quarter and rising 5-10% every single time it arrives.
Gotta pay for those retirees somehow...
It always has amazed me that with Lake Erie on our northern border, how water bills can be so high in Cuyahoga County. Lake Erie is one of the Great Lakes, the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth. We should have the lowest water bills in the nation!
They are so high because we have a centrally controlled water plant and sewer plant in Cleveland proper. Centralized.
My small community has its own waste treatment plant and overflow goes into the Rocky River...which never makes it to NEORSD....yet we got the fee/tax billed to us as well.
Thank Bill Clinton for Clean Water Act II.
That is why every street, even in rural areas, now has to have curb and gutter (NPDES permitting),
-—which implies the captured water has to be taken somewhere,
-—which means you have to design and build retention and detention basins,
-—which means lots of underground concrete or plastic pipe or ditches to convey the stormwater drainage,
-—which implies somebody has to keep them clear and maintained,
-—which means somebody issues the regulations,
-—which means they can charge for permits,
-—which means somebody inspects the facilities to verify compliance,
-—which means they must be trained and managed,
-—which means more government at local, county, state, and federal levels.
Like most problems, the best way to handle it is to go back and isolate it at the root.
Two types of Potable Water sources, Groundwater and Surface water. Water from lakes is surface water. All surface water has to be filtered. You are paying for the filtration and distribution system costs.
My bill is $100+ EVERY month.
It is the result of Democrats being on the city council.
Sewage Spill Jills Fih, But Water Sfae to Drink.
Sewage Spill Kills Fish, But Water Safe to Drink.
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