On the local level, the support for cleaner waters runs deep in Santa Monica.
A polling of 400 residents throughout the city in January indicated that most property owners would support the local government increasing their annual stormwater fees from $36 to $100. That’s for a single-family parcel — multi-family and commercial properties could be more or less, depending upon acreage and usage. The fees would be adjusted for inflation. Currently the stormwater fee generates $1.25 million a year. Following the increase, officials estimate the fees would generate more than $3 million a year — $40 million over the next 10 years.
City Hall hired the Santa Monica-based opinion research firm of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates for $25,000 after officials began weighing their options in determining how to pay for the city’s first-ever watershed protection plan — a 15-to 20-year road map on how to prevent bacterial, chemical and solid waste from entering Santa Monica Bay through its stormwater system.
The watershed plan has been in the works for years, the result of the RWQCB’s new standards for pollution control.
The new, stricter requirements could cost the city tens of millions of dollars in capital improvements, as well as ongoing maintenance costs. The City Council earlier this month approved putting a bond measure on the Nov. 7 ballot, which will ask residents to approve doubling the stormwater fee.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 26, 2006. Read the original PDF.