Building the Basis for Sustainable Stormwater Financing: A User Fee Discussion Prequel

Maintaining and operating sewer infrastructure, combined sewer overflows and polluted urban runoff are critical issues throughout coastal Maine, the region, and the nation.This paper describes the development of an Outreach Plani for the City of Portland (City), Maine that is associated with future investment needs around combined sewer overflow abatement and stormwater runoff mitigation. The Outreach Plan describes a message and message delivery plan suitable for the City as it considers outreach to the public in the development and implementation of a stormwater use charge. This Plan was based on research aimed at maximizing the effectiveness of outreach and research findings used to inform the development of outreach materials. The Plan identifies target audiences, proposes a message including identification of words and phrases likely to be well or poorly received by the public and recommends communication channels for delivering the message.The Plan conducted primary research, including a demographics evaluation, preliminary message testing, city-wide phone survey, and business listening sessions focused on how to maximize the effectiveness of sewer systemii funding outreach. Based on the results presented in the plan, an initial outreach plan is outlined in two phases. Currently, the outreach implementation plan is being advanced.