Making It Rain: Effective Stormwater Fees Can Create Jobs, Build Infrastructure, And Drive Investment In Local Communities

This issue brief, Making It Rain: Effective Stormwater Fees Can Create Jobs, Build Infrastructure, and Drive Investment in Local Communities, produced by Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) explains how a stormwater fee can provide a steady stream of funding for stormwater management. NRDC presents a suite of strategic recommendations for local governments in the process of initiating stormwater fees and accompanying programs. These recommendations position stormwater management as an opportunity to fund and build infrastructure, fairly apportion costs, create jobs, and invest in improvements to communities.

NRDC argues that an impervious area–based stormwater fee can help attribute costs in proportion to how much stormwater runoff a property generates. NRDC also references real-world examples from around the country, with a special focus on the Chesapeake Bay watershed—a region where stormwater fee programs are relatively common.