Flood relief on way, for a fee | The Augusta Chronicle

For Augustans who’ve forded flooded roads or their own yards and basements after recent record rainfalls, a city solution to the problem is well underway.

Last year, the Augusta Com­mission approved the first 25 steps of a 14-year plan to implement a new “stormwater fee” to fund maintenance and repair of the city’s vast network of catch basins, ditches, ponds and pipes.

The engineering department is completing some of the initial inventory work, and on May 16 it issued a request for qualifications from engineering or consulting firms to catalog, map and analyze the system, including stormwater quality as required by federal laws.

City Engineering Director Abie Ladson, whose duties will soon include administering projects funded by the transportation sales tax, said only by assessing the entire stormwater system can drainage issues be properly addressed.

“You might see flooding on Broad Street,” for instance, “but the problem may be a half-mile upstream,” Ladson explained.

A May 30 request for qualifications seeks another engineering or consulting firm to develop a “stormwater utility program” based on the data collected, including developing a fee structure based on a property’s square feet of impervious surface, and implementing billing, with a first bill sent to property owners in June 2014.

via Flood relief on way, for a fee | The Augusta Chronicle.