Resistance is (sometimes) futile: the diffusion and (occasional) demise of stormwater fees in the United States

Objectives: This paper aims to explain patterns of stormwater fee enactment by local governments across the United States since the mid-1960s.Methods: The analyses in this paper include graphical, tabular, and regression analyses of a dataset of legally recognized, general-purpose local governments in the contiguous United States.Results: While underscoring the strong influence that federal and state regulation of municipal stormwater water systems has played in popularizing stormwater fees among local governments in the United States, this paper also highlights the crucial role that state-specific case law, statutory law, and other factors have had on the diffusion of stormwater fees across the country over the past five decades.Conclusions: As local governments across the country continue to face significant infrastructure investments required by increasingly stringent federal and state regulations, this research should help citizens, consultants, and public decision-makers across the United States better understand, design, and debate stormwater fees.