Guest Editorial: Merkley on New Clean River Rewards Program

Guest Author: Oregon Representative Jeff Merkley

Jeff Merkley is Oregon's Speaker of the House for District 47My fight for storm water discounts began in 1998 when Portland cancelled our storm water discounts after promising them during annexation. Dr. Howard Horner , former David Douglas School Superintendent and water fee advocate and I organized the East Portland Coalition against Unfair Storm Water Fees and the battle was on.

By 2000 we had a partial victory-an agreement to restore a 35% discount to families that used drywells or otherwise managed their storm water on their own property. Portland delayed implementing the discount until a new billing software program was developed and implemented, shifting additional millions of dollars out of our community.

With the election of Mayor Potter and Commissioner Sam Adams last year we had a chance to renew the effort to get the storm water discount implemented. Both responded to our arguments and Sam, as the new commissioner in charge of the Bureau of Environmental Services, put together a much improved plan incorporating many of the elements I was advocating. These included:

a one-year retroactive credit;
a deadline for implementation with extended retroactivity for citizens if the city misses the deadline;
a full 35% discount even if you have a driveway that slopes to the street;
the discount stays with the property if the property is sold;
a much simplified application; and
elimination of the demand for detailed blueprints or drawings.

Sam also is planning a strong outreach program that would educate citizens about the discount as well as the City's utility discount. The utility discount helps reduce utility fees to many families but is not well known outside of Southeast Portland.

On November 30th Dr. Horner and I testified at city hall in support of Adams' plan. We thought that we had the support of three commissioners but were surprised and pleased to see all the city's elected officials support the plan.

To read the Resolution, click here.