What are sewer and stormwater management user charges?
Sewer and stormwater management user charges provide the funding necessary for Environmental Services to operate, maintain, and manage the public sewer and stormwater system. Rates and charges are based on the cost of providing services.
Who pays these charges?
Any person who discharges to the City’s sanitary sewer, combined sewer, or storm sewer system, or receives a direct or indirect benefit from City sewer or stormwater management services.
What is Administrative Rule ENB-4.09?
Administrative Rule ENB-4.09 is a policy that governs how Environmental Services calculates sewer user charges, including sanitary sewer user charges, and stormwater management user charges. User charge rates and fees are published in the bureau’s annual rate ordinance, Binding City Policy ENB-4.20.
The regulatory authority for Administrative Rule ENB-4.09 is established through:
- Chapter 1.05 Administrative Code
- Chapter 3.13 Bureau of Environmental Services
- Chapter 17.36 Public Sewer and Drainage System Service Charges and Fees
Why are changes being made?
These changes are being made to improve organization and clarity. City staff have identified areas where clarification and refinement of current policy language would improve internal communications across the organization and with our customers.
What changes are being made?
Below is a summary of the changes.
- The most notable change involves moving user charge details to Environmental Services’ annual rate ordinance. Specific parameters or values used to calculate various user charges, including minimum use values, class averages, and stormwater billable area assignments, have been removed from the rule. Instead, these details will be incorporated into the bureau’s annual rate ordinance. This change allows ratepayers and decision-makers to more fully understand and communicate how public sewer and stormwater management user charges are affected by Environmental Services’ adopted rates. Similarly, this change allows ratepayers and decision-makers to more easily see the effect annual rate adjustments might have on applicable user charges.
- Changes were made throughout the document to better communicate policy intent and applicability by refining existing policy language that was identified as ambiguous or requiring additional details.
- Changes were made throughout the document to improve efficiency, predictability, and overall ease of use by removing unnecessary or redundant information and reorganizing, consolidating, and grouping policies by related subject matter.
All proposed changes to Administrative Rule ENB-4.09 can be reviewed in the document below. The tracked-changes version highlights proposed edits:
- Underlined text indicates new or amended language
- Strikethrough text shows language proposed for removal
- Plain text indicates language that remains unchanged
A clean version of the rule with proposed changes is also available:
What are the anticipated impacts?
Environmental Services will not change how charges on customer utility bills are calculated due to these administrative rule changes. The changes do not include new policies or expand which customers will be charged.
Environmental Services is proposing increases to our rates through the City budget process. If approved by the City Council, the new rates would go into effect on July 1, 2025.
When will these changes go into effect?
Updates to Administrative Rule ENB-4.09 will take effect on July 1, 2025.
Public comment period is closed
Environmental Services accepted public comment on the proposed changes from 8 a.m. Monday, April 28, 2025, through 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 27, 2025.
Questions or additional information
For questions or more information regarding the proposed rule changes, please email the Environmental Services Codes, Rules, and Manuals Team at bescoderule@portlandoregon.gov.