GAO Says Federal Agencies Will Pay Stormwater Fees Like All DC Ratepayers as Norton's Bill Requires
GAO Says Federal Agencies Will Pay Stormwater Fees Like Other DC Rate Payers as Required by Norton's Bill
March 15, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC -- The Government Accountability Office (GAO) today sent a letter to the District of Columbia acknowledging that it will continue to pay stormwater fees in the District as a result of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's (D-DC) bill that overturned GAO's decision to cease payment to the District. Norton got the bill enacted into law during last year's lame-duck session, after GAO sent a letter to federal agencies located in the District instructing them to stop paying D.C. Water and Sewer Authority's (DC Water) stormwater fees. Norton quickly challenged that decision of the federal government, the biggest customer of DC Water, arguing that the effect of "a free ride for the federal government would be that D.C. residents would have had to pick up those costs." Norton drafted a bill to overturn GAO's decision and successfully got the bill passed in December, in the final minutes of the 111th Congress.
The letter GAO sent today to the District states that federal agencies will, in fact, pay DC Water's stormwater fees as a result of Norton's legislation. Norton said, "In this time of tight financial constraints, the burden the federal government was trying to transfer to District taxpayers was heavy, and it was unacceptable. The federal government has always paid for its utilities, like the rest of us. Trying to avoid this fee was particularly unconscionable considering that stormwater fees have increased because of federal law."
DC Water's stormwater management fees are imposed on District residents, and businesses and federal agencies in order to manage and treat stormwater runoff from paved surfaces. The greatest number of runoff sources by far are federal agency roofs and similar property controlled by the federal government.