Services rendered and fees

The stormwater utility fee is a service charge for stormwater management services. The fee is used to provide drainage and water quality services. These services include:

• Providing drainage system maintenance (such as catch basin cleaning and street sweeping)
• Surface water quality monitoring
• Responding to spills and locating illegal connections
• Conducting environmental education and outreach
• Inspecting construction sites, privately owned stormwater systems and businesses
• Conducting long term planning for the stormwater utility

History

The City of Marysville established a surface water utility in 1999. The utility fee was collected by Snohomish County on property tax statements. Starting in 2007, the City began collecting the fee independent ofthe County. Therefore, the feeis no longer on a customer’s property tax statement, but included on their City of Marysville utility bill as a “surface water” fee.

How rates and fees are determined

The fee is based on the area of impervious surface on a parcel. Single-family residents pay a flat rate, while non-single family parcels are assessed a fee that is calculated using an Equivalent Residential Unit (ERU).

An ERU is the average square feet of impervious surface on a single family parcel in the city, which was calculated to be 3,200 square feet. For non-single family parcels the square feet of impervious surface is assessed for the parcel. Then the total is divided by 1 ERU (3,200 square feet), and multiplied by the bi-monthly rate (See below).