Water-quality fees rising in Beaufort County
Beaufort County property owners will pay more for the county's water-quality and stormwater-management efforts this year.
Average increases for the annual fee range from just a few dollars to up to $37 for the typical home, depending on whether the property is in a municipality or an unincorporated area of the county.
The increases are needed to meet newly triggered federal clean-water standards and to try to reverse damage to local waters from years of development under less-stringent regulations.
The rate changes have divided County Council over the past month, but the council ultimately passed the measure 6-4 at its meeting Monday night in Beaufort.
Council members Rick Caporale, Gerald Dawson, Brian Flewelling and Bill McBride opposed the increases.
Dawson and McBride have repeatedly said their constituents in the Dale, Lobeco and St. Helena Island areas should not be asked to pay more for a utility that has previously struggled to jump through legal hoops to help fix stormwater issues in those areas.
All four opponents also argue the rate hikes disproportionately affect large, rural properties and that the council has not had time to fully vet the details of the new rates.
"We really haven't had the time to go through and fine tune this -- it just is too short a fuse," Flewelling said Monday evening. "We need to have some increase in the fee, but I don't believe this is the right way to do it. I think this is too short a fuse to get on the tax bills correctly."
The vote Monday came just in time for the increase to be included on tax bills that will be issued in November, deputy county administrator Josh Gruber and county auditor Jim Beckert have indicated.
But after a vote to postpone in August and a tie vote earlier this month, county staff will have to work overtime to process the increases to meet the Oct. 16 deadline, county stormwater manager Eric Larson said.
"It normally takes us eight weeks," Larson said. "We are prepared to work overtime to get it done, but we are going to need all the time we can between now and the 16th to do it."
The new rates are expected to raise an additional $1.5 million -- funding that will be critical early next year for the stormwater utility to meet 12- and 18-month deadlines for criteria under the new federal guidelines, Larson said.
Without the increases, the county could risk falling out of compliance with the new federal standards as early as next fall, putting it at risk for large federal fines, he has said.
"The bottom line: We've heard all the pros and cons, and I think we're in agreement that what the (staff and consultants) have done are probably as fair and as reasonable as anything we could come up with, even if we took more time," Councilman Jerry Stewart said.
"I compare this to the '70s, when people were forced to take on wastewater," said Councilwoman Alice Howard, who supported the measure. "It's the law. It's the EPA, it's DHEC, and they will fine us. We have to do this."
By the numbers
The proposed fee increases vary based on where you live.
Here's a snapshot of the annual increases for the average homeowner under the proposed new rates:
- Unincorporated Beaufort County: $37 increase, to $87 annually
- Beaufort: $5.15 increase, to $110.15
- Bluffton: $18.13 increase, to $116.13
- Hilton Head Island: $5.52 increase, to $114.22
- Port Royal: $3.88 increase, to $53.88
Follow reporter Zach Murdock at twitter.com/IPBG_Zach and at facebook.com/IPBGZach.
Related content:
- County leaders reconsidering water-quality fee increase for this year, Aug. 24, 2015
- Water-quality fee likely to jump 74 percent this year for some Beaufort County residents , July 25, 2015
This story was originally published September 28, 2015 at 12:51 PM with the headline "Water-quality fees rising in Beaufort County."