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2 <br />Western Kentucky University Stormwater Utility Survey 2019 <br />Fees ranged from zero up to $45 per month. Figure 3 shows the spatial distribution of monthly fees. As <br />has been observed in previous surveys, no state has all high fees. Even states with the higher fees also <br />have utilities with much lower fees. The range of fee amounts probably reflects stormwater needs and <br />local political realities. <br /> <br /> <br />Figure 1. U.S. stormwater utilities (SWUs) <br /> <br />The most widely used method of funding is the ERU system. An Equivalent Residential Unit is usually the <br />average impervious area on a single-family residential parcel, although some communities define it as the <br />average of all residential parcels. Fees for non-residential properties are proportional to the ratio of the <br />parcel impervious area to the ERU. For the ERUs identified in our survey, the median was 2902 square <br />feet impervious with a standard deviation of 8757 square feet. We were able to find ERUs for 800 utilities <br />(Figure 4). It is important to have a good estimate of the ERU because an inaccurate ERU means that <br />someone is paying a disproportionate amount which could increase legal exposure (Campbell [2010]). The <br />second and third most popular fee systems were the tier fee (245 SWUs) and the flat fee (236 SWUs) <br />systems. Next in popularity was the Residential Equivalent Factor (REF) system with 140 identified. We <br />were able to identify 110 Dual Fee systems. <br /> <br />