Airport owner upset over storm water fees: Earl L. Small Jr. Field/Stockmar (20GA), Villa Rica, Georgia

The manager of Stockmar Airport, a colorful part of the Villa Rica landscape for decades, is fighting Douglas County’s water authority over storm water runoff fees, which are tacked onto water bills for all of the agency’s customers.

Homes in Douglas County are charged a flat fee of $4 a month for storm water, but businesses pay $4 for every 2,543 square feet of surface, the median size of a home in the county. For a property as big as the Stockmar Airport, that means nearly $5,400 a year in storm water fees alone.

Marshall Small, whose family owns the airport, thinks that’s way too much.

“The people at WSA are comparing me to Hartsfield-Jackson Airport,” said Small, who recently took over managing the business. “It’s a different ballpark. ... My whole argument is that none of my stuff drains into their system. I have four retention ponds. I’m being billed based on the fact that it’s a paved surface. If I shut down the whole business and called it a private residence I’d only pay $4 a month instead of what I’m paying.”

The ponds on the property sit next to the runway, and Small said they are hardly ever full.

The Douglasville-Douglas County Water and Sewer Authority (WSA) has collected the storm water fees for about a decade. Some other counties, such as DeKalb and Clayton, also have storm water runoff programs.

Villa Rica has looked at charging a similar fee, but thus far hasn’t done so. That means that Villa Rica homes and businesses, including those in Douglas County, are exempt from the fee.

But the airport lies just outside the city limits and in Douglas County.

Stockmar Airport has about two shopping centers worth of asphalt in the form of a nearly mile-long runway and parking lots, but Small said it generates much less revenue than would come from something like a strip mall.

“I’m just a private individual,” he said.

WSA officials say the fees are needed.

Gil Shearouse will become executive director of WSA next summer after longtime director Pete Frost steps down. He said Small does get around a 30 percent discount for his four retention ponds, but at the end of the day WSA still deals with water from his property.

“The fact that he has ponds isn’t different from any other development in our jurisdiction,” he said. “He contends that all water never leaves those ponds. I’ve not investigated it, but I would doubt that’s the case. I’ve not seen any ponds in our jurisdiction that don’t discharge.”

Small isn’t merely opposed to the fees. He says there is evidence WSA collected them before they had legal permission to do so, and is looking into a legal challenge.

“(WSA) is hoping I’ll shut up and go away,” said Small, who has spoken to the authority’s board about the issue.

One of Small’s recent water bills had a charge of $7.31 for water and $489.76 for storm water. The fees are designed to pay for repairs to bridges and culverts in the county. Shearouse said the airport is being charged the same way any other business would be.

“He’s treated like any other nonresidential entity,” said Shearouse. “He gets charged per square foot of impervious area. ... He’s treated no differently than the school system, Douglas County, city of Douglasville or any other entities. Residents are charged $4 a month, period, because they’re residential.”

Legally, storm water runoff charges are a fee and not a tax. Because of this, churches, schools and government buildings aren’t exempt and must also pay.

Small’s father bought the property in 2000 after the death of Dodgie Stockmar. His son said the airport was closed by the government for two years shortly thereafter.

“They made him install these retention ponds to deal with storm water runoff,” said Small.

Source:  http://www.times-georgian.com