New Orleans residents may be ready for a new utility fee if it means they won’t have to sandbag their doors or race their cars to higher ground quite so often.
A new survey commissioned by a New Orleans nonprofit group found that 53% of residents would support a stormwater fee aimed at improving the city’s often overwhelmed flood protection and drainage systems.
Support rose to 57% when respondents were given basic information about the proposed fees, including how they might be calculated, according to the Water Collaborative, which developed the survey with LJR Custom Strategies and has long advocated for stormwater fees in New Orleans. In many cities, stormwater fees are based on how much of a property is covered with parking lots, roofs and other hard surfaces that prevent water from absorbing into the ground, thereby increasing runoff into streets and drains.
The survey showed about 70% of residents support the creation of a stormwater management department that would function as a new utility within City Hall. Under a proposal by the collaborative, the department would manage stormwater fee spending and coordinate drainage and stormwater retention projects by the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board and the city’s Department of Parks and Parkways.
The collaborative hopes to bring the proposed stormwater fees and the creation of a new department before voters, potentially through ballot measures in November. Both measures would need City Council approval before they go to a public vote.
“New Orleans is one of the rainiest cities in the country [and] is dealing with compounding challenges around sea level rise, increasing climate risk and disasters,” said Jessica Dandridge, the collaborative’s executive director. “It is incredibly important for us to have a stormwater utility, especially as funding is dwindling in many of these areas.”
Last year, the S&WB was about $40 million short of the $110 million needed to maintain the city’s drainage system. Basic maintenance of the city’s clog-prone catch basins and other drainage infrastructure has often needed infusions of federal money to supplement local funding.
New Orleans’ drainage system, which relies on 120 pumps, can handle one inch of rain per hour for the first hour and a half inch every additional hour, but climate change is intensifying storms beyond those capacities.
Rainfall intensity in the city has grown by 9% since 1970, according to Climate Central.
Storms like the one that dumped four inches of rain over two hours late last month are increasingly common. The April 21 storm overwhelmed the city’s drains, flooded cars and closed several streets in the New Orleans area.
“Four-inch rainstorms are incredibly damaging to spots in a city not built to handle that drainage,” said Joey Algier, the collaborative’s education manager.
The U.S. has more than 2,000 local stormwater utilities. Most are grouped in the Southeast, Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes region, according to a 2022 stormwater utility survey by Western Kentucky University. No stormwater utilities have been formed in Louisiana or Mississippi, despite being the two states “hardest hit” by Hurricane Katrina and other powerful storms, the WKU survey’s authors said in a report.
“Louisiana and Mississippi have missed a golden opportunity to encourage stormwater utilities,” the report said.
The Water Collaborative’s survey drew from 500 New Orleans residents. Nearly 70% of respondents were property owners, and about 67% had lived in the city for more than 30 years. About half said their homes or vehicles had been damaged by rainfall not associated with a hurricane.
The survey also gauged the feelings of 200 New Orleans business owners. About 44% have been forced to close or adjust their hours due to flooding, and nearly 60% were worried about the future of their businesses.
City leaders have expressed support for stormwater fees, but there’s disagreement about whether a stormwater-focused department is necessary. Last year, the S&WB began developing a stormwater fee plan with its leaders overseeing the funds rather than a new department. The plan is still taking shape.
The S&WB plan might not sit well with voters. The collaborative notes that many residents and some city leaders don’t trust the S&WB due to longstanding customer billing problems and drainage system maintenance issues.
Along with a separate stormwater department, the collaborative proposes a new nine-member community advisory board to oversee how the department spends the fees and priorities projects.
Confounding the issue is a bill in the Louisiana Legislature that would establish a stormwater fee in New Orleans without approval from voters or city leaders. State Rep. Mandie Landry, a New Orleans Democrat, introduced the bill in early April but later expressed doubts about whether the state can impose the fee without local support.
Under the collaborative’s plan, voter-approved stormwater fees would be phased in as residential and commercial property taxes devoted to drainage expire. The collaborative also wants the fees to apply to about 4,700 tax-exempt properties in the city. These properties, which include churches, universities and the Superdome, are exempt from paying what would have amounted to about $3 billion in property tax revenue last year.
Applying stormwater fees to these properties could generate nearly $53 million per year, as estimated by a collaborative analysis. For instance, the Carnival organization Krewe of Iris would pay almost $23,000 per year and Xavier University would pay about $475,000. The Tchoupitoulas Street Walmart, which is on 816,000 square feet of land owned by the Walmart Real Estate Business Trust, would need to contribute $200,000 in stormwater fees annually, according to the collaborative’s calculations.
Property owners could reduce their fees by incorporating rain barrels, permeable pavement, tree plantings and other “green” infrastructure that helps hold or absorb rain water.
Rebecca Malpass, the collaborative’s policy director, said the fees may be a financial strain for some, but the alternative is living with ever-increasing flood damage.
“It feels like a lot, but our system is vastly in need,” she said.
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