Smart Taxes is a short title for snappiness but we also include smart policies that can reduce the need for taxes. Here is a great example from World Changing that shows there are many ways to skin a cat – or in Ireland’s case manage high rainfall and floods other than draining the Shannon.
Downspout disconnection program, Portland: Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) are a scourge of urban sewer-stormwater systems. In these systems, stormwater and sewage are mixed and treated in sewage facilities. In heavy storms, the treatment plants are overwhelmed by the extra runoff, and the combined waste gets dumped untreated into rivers and bays. And they’re really expensive to fix by separating the systems or increasing capacity.
So Portland is opting for a program that pays homeowners $53 for each downspout it disconnects from the stormwater system. Instead, the water flows into rain barrels or the home’s yard. More than 50,000 downspouts have been disconnected, channeling more than 1.2 billion gallons of water out of the CSO system. (link to article)
