The Narragansett Bay Commission that Nini Stoddard wrote about in the June 4 Eye [“Time to Find Out about your Wastewater Treatment Plant”] does a good job at treating wastewater, but I question the fairness about who pays for the $570 million they spent on improvements so far.
I think it is almost all paid by consumers in the Bay Commission district on the basis of how much water they use. This is a poor measure of responsibility as I’ve been told that about 80 percent of the water flow that needs treatment is not from consumers’ water use such as flushing the toilet, but from runoff from impervious surfaces such as roofs, driveways, streets, roads, parking lots. Many people who do not live in the district but use the extensive roads and highways in the district, and park at state government facilities, hospitals, colleges, and shopping centers help cause the runoff problem but apparently don’t pay to finance the solution.
This is not fair and puts an unreasonable burden on those in the metro region who have seen huge increases in sewer bills to address the problem created to a some extent by those not paying to solve it. Even within the region there is little incentive to not pave over green space even though it adds to the runoff.
We need a better financing system!
Barry Schiller, North Providence
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