Quote:
Detroit's water department is preparing to scale back a controversial storm water drainage fee after backlash from businesses and churches that got hit with the hefty $750-per-acre monthly charge.
The city's Board of Water Commissioners will vote Wednesday on a plan to reduce the drainage fee to $125 per acre until July and then phase in increases over the next five fiscal years to $677 by July 2022, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department Director Gary Brown said.
Detroit began imposing the fee in July 2015 on the owners of 22,000 parcels with impervious surfaces such as roofs and parking lots that "weren't paying anything at all," Brown said.
Quote:
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has required Detroit to eliminate all sewage discharges by 2022, Brown said.
The sewage releases vary depending on heavy rainstorms.
Last year, the city released 800 million gallons of combined sewage and storm water, according to DWSD.
In 2014, a torrential August rain storm contributed to 6.8 billion gallons of untreated sewage and storm water being released — and widespread basement flooding in the city and northern suburbs.