About This Site
Changing regulations and concern about the adverse environmental effects of stormwater discharges are requiring stormwater management programs to evolve and expand. No longer is the sole focus of these programs on flood control through the provision of drainage, typically through the control of post-development stormwater peak discharge rates. Stormwater programs must now address erosion and sediment control during the construction phase and minimize the discharge of pollutants after construction is completed by using stormwater treatment practices. Stormwater programs must also include public education efforts and focus more on the long-term maintenance of stormwater systems.
To assist local governments in meeting the challenges of establishing comprehensive stormwater management programs, the EPA and states have prepared numerous publications as part of the "Stormwater Tool Box". Several of these publications are included in the bibliography and archive portions of this website. A comprehensive stormwater management program must have a sound institutional, technical, and financial foundation. To assist local governments in assessing their needs, the Watershed Management Institute, Inc. has received funding from the U.S. EPA for three products:
1. Institutional Aspects of Urban Runoff Programs: A Guide to Program Development and Implementation, May 1997.
2. Operation, Maintenance, and Management of Stormwater Management Systems, August 1997.
3. Funding Stormwater Management Programs (This Web site).
There already exists a rich professional literature about ways to finance stormwater programs. People familiar with this literature might reasonably ask, "Why another guide?" One answer is simply to report on the most recent developments in the field. Another is that new information is timely given the new federal regulations that will require new stormwater programs in many medium and small sized municipalities. A third is that new guides typically reach new groups of people. Perhaps the best answer is to take advantage of the Internet and new technology that makes information more easily available to the people who need it.
This guide addresses the complex series of questions that managers must answer when developing plans to pay for stormwater programs. This guide is also much more. It is a guide to and through the professional literature that has evolved during the past 25 years as public managers have developed interesting, innovative approaches to paying for runoff programs. An annotated bibliography provides short references for many technical reports and articles written by experts who have established successful mechanisms to fund stormwater programs. Thanks to many cooperative organizations and individuals who generously have waived copyrights to their publications, we have created a virtual archive of many of the most important works in the field. We have also established Internet links to many other important Web sites relevant to stormwater finance. Through an annotated bibliography, an archive, a manual, case studies, and links to other useful web sites, people can access information ranging from general overviews of finance to detailed analyses of the ways in which particular communities have developed innovative systems of finance.
People in the environmental field often repeat two cliches. The first is that there is no need to reinvent the wheel. The second is that we should avoid cookie-cutter solutions. In this case, rather than reinventing the wheel, we provide direct access to a warehouse of wheels. And rather than a template for cutting, we provide ingredients for mixing. This guide provides no direct answers to the problems of stormwater finance. Instead, it provides a knowledge base from which answers can be developed. This knowledge base consists of summaries of the ways in which different people in different communities at different points in time have answered the standard set of questions about ways to pay for stormwater management programs.
Several ideas and principles have shaped this guide including:
Accordingly, we have structured our manual, Financing Stormwater Management Programs: Choices and Options, around questions that people typically ask when addressing the problem of stormwater finance for the first time. People working to pay for new stormwater management programs typically face a standard set of questions:
Our manual illustrates how different communities have answered these questions. The manual focuses on answers to questions that are most likely to be transferable. It includes, for example, more information about different algorithms for determining stormwater user charges than examples of ways that managers have added stormwater charges to existing utility bills. It does so because algorithms for allocating charges are more likely to be transferable. Because many utility billing systems have developed idiosyncratically, options for modification are more limited, and that ways that other places manage their systems are less relevant. Regardless of the topic, however, users can easily access more detailed information through links to our bibliography, our archive, a set of case studies, and other web sites.
Stormwater management is an evolving field, and communities across America continue to develop innovative ways to finance new programs. While we have tried to make our guide comprehensive, we inevitably have missed publications written by local public works officials and consultants to support recent local initiatives. The Watershed Management Institute welcomes suggestions for additions or revisions to this site. Although funds for modification of the site are not presently available, the Institute hopes to update the site periodically in the future.
Funding for this site was provided through a cooperative agreement between the Watershed Management Institute, Inc. and the United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water. The Watershed Management Institute, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the science and acceptance of watershed management. The Institute conducts educational workshops, has published two books on stormwater management, and is conducting research on the effects of stormwater and stormwater BMPs on aquatic community health.
The Center for Urban Policy and the Environment is affiliated with the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). The Center was created in 1992 through an award of general support from the Lilly Endowment. The Center also works on client-funded projects on a broad range of policy issues. Past clients include the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, the State of Indiana, the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, the Ford Foundation, the Indianapolis Neighborhood Housing Partnership, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and the City of Indianapolis.