In 2010, the EPA ordered states within the Chesapeake Bay watershed to reduce the amount of stormwater-borne pollutants reaching the estuary. Maryland state legislation mandating stormwater mitigation programs in the state's 10 largest jurisdictions has culminated in the Charles County board of commissioners tripling the county's environmental services fee, known locally as a "rain tax," on property owners, which will fund the program's $2.1 million budget.

The board of commissioners in Charles County, Md., approved a fee increase on property owners at a June 19 meeting that will fund a stormwater management program mandated by the state. The state's environmental services fee, which currently charges $14 annually for stormwater mitigation, will be raised to $43.

The mandate is based on a 2010 order from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that requires states within the Chesapeake Bay watershed to reduce the stormwater-borne pollutants that reach the estuary. The Maryland General Assembly passed legislation in 2012 that required the state's 10 largest jurisdictions to fund stormwater management projects.

The fee??"known colloquially as the "rain tax"??"began with a tiered approach that would charge a separate fee for condominiums, townhomes, urban homes and rural homes with farms, with additional fees levied onto businesses and non-profit organizations depending on their property's amount of impervious surface. Despite opposition to the fee and the larger mandate, a majority of the speakers at a public hearing last month supported the flat fee structure over charging different amounts based on property type.

"I think that in a perfect world, it would be more equitable to go with the [tiered] rate, but I think the cost of administering it, as well as the overwhelming response from the public in support of the flat rate, makes me lean towards going in that route," Commissioner Ken Robinson (D) said before the vote. The council adopted the flat fee structure unanimously.