Residents May Pay Fee for Stormwater Fund

There will be a much higher expense to the town in dealing with stormwater runoff, and residents may have to pay for it.

“It’s a very significant cost impact to the town of Seekonk moving forward,” Town Administrator Shawn Cadime said at the Board of Selectmen’s February 15 meeting with the Planning Board.

“Someone still probably putting fertilizer on their property, that water is going through the system, getting into our overall system and still impacting that water quality,” explained Town Planner John Aubin.

Cadime said the board had appropriated $440,000 “which was going to give us a leg up on some of the requirements coming through with the testing and the MS4 permitting.”

“If it comes out of the General Fund, we’re pulling from a pool of money and competing with other departments and then we’re going to have to make difficult decisions,” Cadime noted, adding Seekonk has to address the maintenance of catch basins and other methods of handling stormwater to be in compliance with state and federal requirements as dictated by the Clean Water Act.

Under the CWA, the Environmental Protection Agency has implemented pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry. EPA has also developed national water quality criteria recommendations for pollutants in surface waters.

The CWA made it unlawful to discharge any pollutant from a point source into navigable waters, unless a permit was obtained.

Cadime said there would be a flat fee for residential properties and a higher fee for all commercial and industrial property “which has more impact into the system.”