Cobb to develop proposal for possible stormwater fees

Cobb storm damage town hall — *Terrell Mill Estates resident Denise Canteli showed Cobb commissioners photos of flood damage in her yard during the September storms.*

The Cobb Board of Commissioners has directed the county’s water department to craft proposals in the coming weeks for the possible creation of a stormwater fee.

By a 3-2 vote, commissioners set in motion a process to address stormwater management issues that have existed for years, but that most recently have angered citizens in East Cobb after heavy flooding in September.

The possible creation of a stormwater fee was first raised following a consultant’s report in 2005, but no action has been taken along those lines, Cobb Water System director Judy Jones told commissioners.

“These aren’t new initiatives,” she said. “They’re ongoing.”

A revised agenda item for Tuesday’s meeting requested consulting assistance to prepare code amendment proposals that would be voted on later by commissioners.

Since 1994, stormwater management has been handled by the Cobb water system, and is funded by water and sewer revenues.

The current fiscal year 2022 Cobb stormwater budget is $2.26 million and its current capital improvements budget is $4.5 million.

Of the 1,800 miles of drain pipes in county right-of-way areas, 70 miles need replacing. In addition, the agenda item notes, “there is a significant backlog of stormwater projects, including 93 pipe failures that have resulted in sinkholes. The Water System does not have sufficient staffing or funding to complete these projects in a timely manner.”

Jones told commissioners that her office had been crafting stormwater proposals for several months, before the September floods, and has been pulling away employees from her short-staffed department to do so.

Meanwhile, East Cobb residents who were impacted by the September floods are still dealing with the devastating aftermath.

East Cobb resident Hill Wright, who leads a citizens group pressing the county for action, said during a public comment period at Tuesday’s meeting that stormwater services are “playing second fiddle in the water department” and urged the creation of a separate stormwater department.

He’s been especially critical of what he says has been a poor response by the county, and suggested that Cobb use federal funds under the American Rescue Plan Act to develop “a long-term plan.”

Jones said the county could use ARPA funds for purposes as outlined in state water quality guidelines, but “they can’t just be used to repair a pipe.”

The expanded services she’s recommending are related only to maintaining existing stormwater facilities, and “do not include upsizing pipes or flood recovery assistance.”

That last issue was noted by Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of Northeast Cobb, who also said that she couldn’t “support another utility fee” with Cobb water rates going up by 11 percent in January.

Also starting in 2022, residential customers in unincorporated Cobb who use less than 5,000 gallons a year will pay $1.99 a month more than those in Cobb cities who are charged for the same amount of water and sewer.

Birrell, who’s long been vocal about curtailing the amount of water system revenues transferred to the county’s general fund, voted against the measures, along with Keli Gambrill of North Cobb.

Among other objections, Gambrill said that municipal customers “don’t know what they’re getting for that fee” and was concerned about adding more stormwater duties to an overworked water system staff.

Jones recommended that if a stormwater fee is created (and included on a customer’s water bill), it could be charged according to the amount of impervious surfaces on a property, instead of water and sewer usage.

(Such a fee, in fact, has been suggested for a number of years by residents of the Loch Highland neighborhood in East Cobb, as we reported in 2018 story.)

Birrell suggested that such a fee might be issued to a developer, and for that to be part of the county’s upcoming consideration of a Unified Development Code.

There’s not a timetable that was mentioned for bringing action items back before the commissioners.