The Financial Impact of Different Stormwater Fee Types: A Case Study of Two Municipalities in Virginia
Abstract
Eight stormwater user fees ( SUF s) were applied to the City of Roanoke and the Town of Blacksburg, Virginia, to determine the effect each has on how land use type impacts the sources of revenue. Roanoke is larger and includes more industrial areas, but less multifamily impervious areas than Blacksburg, which translates differently in the SUF s. Residential parcels comprise the highest percentage of the revenue in all eight SUF s in Blacksburg and four in Roanoke. For both municipalities, two specific SUF s consistently comprised the highest percentage burden for residential homeowners while three other SUF s demonstrated the highest burden for commercial parcels. Open space parcels contain little impervious area, yet account for up to 27% of the revenue in the Blacksburg Area fee structure. Industrial parcels comprise more revenue in Roanoke, averaging 10.1‐4.5% in Blacksburg. Fee types that are easier to administer ( e.g ., Flat fees) may not fully represent the stormwater contribution from the parcels. SUF types that more accurately represent the stormwater burden on the municipality are also more administratively intensive and are more variable with fee factors.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Small-municipality (Phase II) MS4s frequently grapple with several challenges, resulting in a lack of stakeholder buy-in and actionable stormwater management plans.
“However, small-municipality (Phase II) MS4s frequently grapple with several challenges, resulting in a lack of stakeholder buy-in and actionable stormwater management plans.”
From Phase II MS4 challenges: moving toward effective stormwater management for small municipalities (2022) · cites this paper as Fedorchak et al. 2017
The implementation of fees and fee reductions is a highly local decision.
“making the implementation of fees and fee reductions a highly local decision (Fedorchak et al. 2017;William et al. 2017William et al. , 2020)).”
From Phase II MS4 challenges: moving toward effective stormwater management for small municipalities (2022) · cites this paper as Fedorchak et al. 2017
Fee reductions may be effective in incentivizing BMP installations on private property, but may also exacerbate inequity in certain communities.
“Fee reductions may be effective in incentivizing BMP installations on private property, but may also exacerbate inequity in certain communities”
From Phase II MS4 challenges: moving toward effective stormwater management for small municipalities (2022) · cites this paper as Fedorchak et al. 2017
A variety of fee structures have been developed that can be considered by municipalities as they seek to balance ease of calculation, revenue generation, and the equitability of cost to landowners.
“A variety of fee structures have been developed that can be considered by municipalities as they seek to balance ease of calculation, revenue generation, and the equitability of cost to landowners (Fedorchak et al. 2017).”
From Phase II MS4 challenges: moving toward effective stormwater management for small municipalities (2022) · cites this paper as Fedorchak et al. 2017
Cites
The Relation Between the Rainfall and the Discharge of Sewers in Populous Districts
Kuichling, E. (1889) · Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers · doi:10.1061/taceat.0000694 · Cited by 318 · see citing works
An Analysis of Patterns and Trends in United States Stormwater Utility Systems
Kea, K., Dymond, R. L., & Campbell, W. (2016) · JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association · doi:10.1111/1752-1688.12462 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Self-citationGrigg, N. S. (2012) · Public Works Management & Policy · doi:10.1177/1087724x12461259 · Cited by 21 · see citing works
Evaluation of Variability in Response to the NPDES Phase II Stormwater Program in Virginia
Aguilar, M. F., & Dymond, R. L. (2015) · Journal of Sustainable Water in the Built Environment · doi:10.1061/jswbay.0000802 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Self-citationNPDES PHASE II MS4 STORMWATER PERMIT COMPLIANCE: WHAT TO DO NOW
Gillespie, J. B., Holbrook, F., Bates, B. T., & Silva, R. D. C. G. E. (2002) · Public works · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Paying for green: A scoping review of alternative financing models for nature-based solutions
den Heijer, C., & Coppens, T. (2023) · Journal of Environmental Management · doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117754 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
Stormwater Utility Fees and Credits: A Funding Strategy for Sustainability
Zhao, Z. J., Fonseca, C., & Zeerak, R. (2019) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su11071913 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Stormwater utility fees and household affordability of urban water services
Porse, E. C., Kerner, M., Shinneman, J., Kaplan, J. D., Stone, S. B., & Cadenasso, M. L. (2022) · Water Policy · doi:10.2166/wp.2022.024 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Phase II MS4 challenges: moving toward effective stormwater management for small municipalities
Rieck, L., Carson, C., Hawley, R. J., Heller, M., Paul, M., Scoggins, M., Zimmerman, M., & Smith, R. F. (2022) · Urban Ecosystems · doi:10.1007/s11252-021-01179-3 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Towards sustainable urban water management: an ecological compensation framework for sponge cities
Shi, C., Li, Y., Li, H., Qiu, H. X., & Xu, T. (2024) · Environmental Research Letters · doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ad8edf · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Arik, A. D. (2024) · Water Resources Research · doi:10.1029/2023wr035743 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Jia, Z., Xu, C., & Luo, W. (2020) · Water Resources Management · doi:10.1007/s11269-020-02520-9 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Toward a more socially equitable stormwater management fee: The case of Corpus Christi in Texas, USA
Lee, J., Zhang, H., & Huang, Y. (2023) · Environment and Planning B Urban Analytics and City Science · doi:10.1177/23998083231207535 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Marques, G. F., Possantti, I. B., Dalcin, A. P., Daiello, J., González-Ávila, I., Todeschini, F., & Goldenfum, J. A. (2024) · Journal of Cleaner Production · doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.143364 · Cited by 4 · see citing works
Kinney, A., Evrard, R., Bogue, K., & James, C. A. (2023) · JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association · doi:10.1111/1752-1688.13123 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Models and Values of Fees and Incentives for Financing Sustainable Urban Drainage
de Vicente, A. P. C., de Faria, K. M. S., & Formiga, K. T. M. (2024) · Sociedade & natureza · doi:10.14393/sn-v36-2024-71211 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Municipal Stormwater Management Spending in California: Data Extraction, Compilation, and Analysis
Babchanik, D., Salt, D., Kerner, M., Currier, B., & Porse, E. C. (2022) · Environmental Management · doi:10.1007/s00267-022-01621-y · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Garcia, H., Techapinyawat, L., Lee, J., & Zhang, H. (2024) · Environmental Research Infrastructure and Sustainability · doi:10.1088/2634-4505/ad8305 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
CATEGORISING AREA MODELS FOR STORMWATER FEES AT PROPERTY LEVEL: A LITERATURE REVIEW
Rydningen, U., Torgersen, G., & Bjerkholt, J. T. (2022) · WIT transactions on the built environment · doi:10.2495/friar220081 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Fee for Reducing Natural Field Retention as an Instrument of Sustainable Public Finance
Sygut, E. (2023) · Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska sectio H Oeconomia · doi:10.17951/h.2023.57.4.183-200
Advanced Tools and Techniques for Setting Stormwater Utility Fees
Kesavan, P., Reddy, V. H. N., Bathi, J. R., Dahmash, Z., & McDonald, W. L. (2024) · World Environmental and Water Resources Congress (EWRI) · doi:10.1061/9780784485477.125
Definition of Charging Fee for Drainage Services and Incentives Based on LID Simulation
de Vicente, A. P. C., & Formiga, K. T. M. (2026) · Smart Cities · doi:10.3390/smartcities9080132
- Authors
- Fedorchak, A., Dymond, R., & Campbell, W.
- Affiliations
- Virginia Tech (US)
- Western Kentucky University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Fedorchak, Amanda
- Venue
- JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2017-10-27
- Volume
- 53
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1483-1494
- ISSN
- 1093-474X (ISSN-L)
- 1752-1688
- OpenAlex
- W2766142099
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 0.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Urban Stormwater Management Solutions
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Local Government Finance and Decentralization
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Ocean Engineering › Water resources management and optimization
- Keywords
- impervious surfaces, open space, flat fees, Roanoke, Virginia, Blacksburg, Virginia
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
