The Commissioner of the Ontario Environmental Dianne Saxe warned this week that most Ontario municipalities do not have the appropriate funding models to adequately manage stormwater.
"The stormwater runoff - heavy rains or melting snow - can cause flooding, erosion of riverbanks and streams, and water pollution," said Saxe. "A good stormwater management plan is essential to protect our communities and the environment.
"Municipalities are responsible for much of this important service and are often invisible, but the province needs to put in place regulatory frameworks."
The report of the Commissioner of Urban Stormwater Fees: How to Pay for What We Need (costs associated with urban stormwater: How to pay for what we need), asks the province to require municipalities to cover the full costs of managing stormwater runoff; for example, by charging the owners of fresh rainwater runoff as separate volumes.
After decades of investment reduction, municipalities in Ontario are now facing a deficit of $ 6.8 billion to repair the infrastructure of rainwater and future growth accommodation. This financial gap could increase due to the flow of increasingly large amounts and runoff increasingly being polluted.
Additional costs can be added to handle the changes in precipitation and runoff in relation to climate change.
The Commissioner conducted a survey of municipalities and found that only 35% of them recover all stormwater management costs.
As a first step towards cost recovery, the Ontario government must demand that all municipalities prepare asset management plans for their infrastructure, gray stormwater (pipes, drains, etc.) green (damp, green roof areas, permeable coating, rain gardens, etc.). Asset management plans allow municipalities to be aware of their real costs and money they need to recover total costs.
However, 40% of municipalities that responded to the survey of the Commissioner do not have asset management plans for their infrastructure rainwater.
"Fees for rainwater is an excellent choice to allow cities to establish a cost recovery while protecting the environment and becoming more resilient to climate change," says Saxe. In Ontario, these costs can vary between $ 3.95 and $ 14.92 per month for an average home.
"Without better municipal funding models for stormwater, our future may hold more basement flooding, sewage bypass, closing days of beaches and sediment in lakes and rivers," says Saxe.
The report of the Commissioner of the Environment, Urban Stormwater Fees: How to Pay for What We Need (costs associated with urban stormwater: How to pay for what we need) can be downloaded at eco.on.ca .
