SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — A slight but significant change is coming to utility bills in Sarasota County. Recently, the County Commission adopted an ordinance to allow homes to be assessed by a Stormwater Environmental Utility Rate. It's part of a long-term goal toward water quality improvement.
Prior to this change, stormwater fees residents paid could only be used to combat flooding in neighborhoods. But with this adjustment, that fund will now be split towards combatting pollution.
"The stormwater is one of the major components that contribute to these pollutants getting into the estuaries and into the nearshore marine environments," said Jon Thaxton, Gulf Coast Foundation.
The aim of the stormwater EUR is to assess properties based on the number of pollutants they are likely to add to the system. The funds will go to cleaning and preventing such runoff from getting into the waterways and negatively impacting the environment.
"The economic value of an acre of that seagrass is measured in many tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars and the loss of the sea grass that is attributed to the loadings from stormwater is significant," said Thaxton.
Recently, Sarasota issued 'No Swim' advisories at several beaches over high amounts of fecal bacteria. Experts said such events if they occur too frequently put local tourism and businesses at risk.
"We have had the same rate assessment for the last 15 years we've seen where we've really fallen behind," Amanda Boone, Senior Stormwater Manager.
According to county officials, a medium single-family home with around 3200 ft.² of impervious surface, for example, the roof and driveway could see about a six cents a day increase in their utility.
"Having this new rate structure is going to keep things fair and equitable and allow us to focus on water quality and really move forward for the county," said Boone.
"It creates an incentive for people to go from a concrete driveway to paving blocks or to some other impervious surface that will allow the stormwater to sift through the surface rather than run off the surface and go into the stormwater conveyance system," Thaxton said.
In the meantime, 'No Swim' advisories are still in effect for some beaches in Hillsborough County due to high levels of bacteria in the water. The affected beaches include Bahia and Simmons Park Beach in Ruskin. In Manatee County, Bayfront Park North, Manatee Public Beach North, Palma Sola South, and the popular Coquina Beach North also so have 'No Swim' advisories.