Earlier this year, West Lafayette homeowners started noticing a new bill from the city in their mailboxes.
For many, the $8 monthly "stormwater fee" was just another annoying check to write. A few who read the fine print to figure out what the fee was for dubbed it the "rain tax."
The fee, however, is essential in the quest to clean up area waterways and mitigate pollution. Lafayette residents have been paying a similar fee since 2010.
Rain, so essential for life, brings with it unwanted problems of standing water where insects breed, erosion that chokes rivers with silt and runoff that carries pollutants to waterways, especially the Wabash River.
Solving these problems often costs more than most cities can afford, although they don't really have a choice.
For the past eight years, West Lafayette — as well as Lafayette, Tippecanoe County, Dayton, Battle Ground, Purdue University and Ivy Tech Community College — have had to comply with an Indiana Department of Environmental Management permit, which requires them to reduce stormwater pollutants.
The $8 monthly fee in West Lafayette is part of that compliance. So what are residents getting for their money?
Broadly speaking, the fee pays for anything that can keep pollutants from being swept to the river, according to Utility Manager Dave Henderson.
"The quickest and biggest thing the stormwater fee is going to is compliance — efforts that nobody ever knows or sees or hears of us doing because it's now part of our standard business daily operations," City Engineer Dave Buck said.
For example, $375,000 of the $1.22 million collected each year in stormwater fees is used for operational expenses to monitor runoff discharged to the Wabash River, sweep streets and purchase equipment. Even the sand used to soak up oil and antifreeze after a car accident could be paid for with stormwater fees since it prevents pollutants from reaching the watershed, Buck said.
Another $150,000 is earmarked for 12 minor capital projects, and the remaining $700,000 is saved for eight major capital projects to correct stormwater-related problems.
Those problems fall into three broad categories: erosion, standing water and wetland issues.