Surface Water Management is a combination of construction projects, stewardship programs, and maintenance and restoration efforts to protect the public health, safety and welfare of King County's waters and lands. It seeks to identify, fix, prevent and mitigate the effects of surface and stormwater runoff and the problems it creates like erosion, pollution getting into waterways and changes in water flow and temperature. It seeks to protect the water quality of our lakes, streams and rivers and King County's lands.
King County's program and the fee began in 1987. It is a requirement of the federal Clean Water Act. Almost every jurisdiction in the county and across the nation has to comply with the act and have a surface water management program in place.
Yes, every property owner with either a house on a residential parcel or impervious surface on commercial parcels in unincorporated King County pays this fee. New developments larger than a minimum size have to build flow and water quality control facilities to handle the runoff from the development's impervious surface. The developer is required to purchase a bond to pay for the maintenance of the drainage facility for three years until it then becomes the responsibility of King County. So, ultimately, the fees that these new property owners are paying pays to maintain their drainage and water quality facility to make sure it is working properly.
Almost every jurisdiction in King County has its own surface water management program and assesses a fee to pay for it. King County’s fee in 2007 will be $111 for residences. Here are some examples of residential fees charged by cities in King County (2005 rates):
Kirkland $183 flat
Bellevue $166 average (various levels)
Sammamish $150 flat
Issaquah $141 flat
Mercer Island $140 flat
Redmond $138 flat
Covington $134 flat
Newcastle $130 flat
North Bend $118 flat
Maple Valley $ 85 flat
Federal Way $84 flat
SeaTac $83 flat
King County's Surface Water Management fee pays for:
Fee revenue is used to build projects that improve drainage, water quality and stream bed stability that also improve fish habitat. A small portion of the fee revenue pays for King County's participation in ongoing salmon recovery planning efforts. To respond to the Endangered Species Act, there are four Watershed Resource Inventory Areas in King County where groups of scientists, elected officials and representatives from several jurisdictions are making decisions about what to do to save salmon habitats.
A portion of the fee pays for programs that help farmers and the agricultural community directly for example:
In 2005 approximately $19 million was generated from surface water fees.
Surface water management fees are a dedicated source of funds that must be and can only be spent on surface water management-related projects and services by law. Both state statutes and King County code limit what it can be spent on. In addition, the State and/or the King County Auditor routinely audit to make sure that fee revenues are being spent according to the law and good accounting practices are being maintained. The annual county budget process requires the division to provide information to the county council and the executive and we also conduct public meetings to let ratepayers know how their fee dollars are being spent.
This fee is billed with property taxes. If you don't pay the fee or only pay your property tax payment -- excluding the surface water fee, King County's Office of Finance will not accept your payment, and your check will be mailed back to you. Both taxes and the fee will become delinquent and be subject to interest and penalties.
This fee is due in two equal installments on April 30 and October 31, the same as property taxes.
First we measure your impervious surface. That amount of impervious surface is taken as a percentage of your total parcel acreage, putting you into a rate category. (Refer to green card enclosed in mailing for rate categories.) Then, you will be charged for your total acreage based on the fee charged in your category.
If residential: All residential parcels in unincorporated King County are charged the same amount - $111. You may be eligible for a low-income, senior citizen discount or a flow control or water quality facility discount (if you were required to build one to handle runoff as required by drainage standards for large houses or in sensitive areas for examle.)
If commercial: You can request to have your impervious surface re-measured by contacting the Water and Land Resources Division at 206-296-6519 and asking for a surface water customer service representative. You should know that re-measurement may result in your fee staying the same, being lowered or possibly increasing.
Packed gravel and earthen matter prevents or impedes the entry of water into the soil mantle as it occurred under natural conditions. We are basing this on scientific studies that show that once gravel is compacted (from cars, heavy equipment for example) it acts like paved surfaces and surface water runs off of it. In addition, if cars or heavy equipment are traveling on these gravel surfaces, surface waters carry pollution like dissolved minerals or residual petroleum that then soak into ground water or into our waterways.
If you are enrolled in the Open Space, Public Benefit Rating System or the Timberland Programs, you are eligible for a discount. The discount is given in the way we calculate the fee. Instead of charging you for total acreage, we only multiply your rate by the number of impervious acres. We can verify if you are receiving that discount.
There was no public vote to increase this fee because the law did not require it. The Metropolitan King County Council voted to increase the fee and they did so after conducting two weeks of public meetings during the budget process in November, 2001.
The Metropolitan King County Council voted to raise the fee to cover the rising costs of doing business and to pay for agricultural and forestry stewardship services that were previously paid for by current expense or general tax funds. Because these programs were important, the Council thought it wiser to pay for them with a dedicated fee source. In addition, the fee had not been raised in over ten years and although this increase does not match inflation, it does restore some of the purchasing power for building projects and providing services. In addition, it is expected that costs will continue to rise to comply with the Endangered Species and Clean Water Acts.
Even though we are accounting for the money collected from the extended area separately, for legal purposes, King County has one service area and when the fee changes it must change for the entire service area.
By state statute and county code, the surface water fee is not a tax. The courts both in King and in Clark Counties have upheld this determination. Generally speaking, taxes are based on levels of income or some kind of valuation. Fees are charged based on a contribution to the problem. The surface water fee is directly linked to the problems associated with runoff from impervious surface and it pays for specific services and programs to identify, fix or prevent those problems from continuing. Fees are earmarked funds and can only be spent on specific things.
If you qualify as a low-income, senior citizen for property tax relief, you will be exempt from the fee. We receive information on these discounts from the Assessor's Office, who processes property tax relief requests. To apply call the Assessor's Office at 206- 296-3920 to qualify.
Please see our SWM fee fact sheet and discount summary pages.
We will forward your account, name and phone number to an engineer who will call you within five (5) business days to discuss the discounts further and schedule a site visit.
Q I already have a retention/detention or flow control or water quality facility on my site, do I already get a discount?
Does your letter say that you already receive a discount? If not, please give me your information (parcel #, address etc.) and I will have our billing supervisor look up your account. If your facility is not in our roster, we will have to inspect it to make sure it qualifies for the discount and is operating to our standards.
Please see our SWM fee fact sheet and discount summary pages.
This may be possible. We can refer you to an engineer who will call you back and discuss what could work for your site. For more detail, please visit our SWM fee fact sheet page.