Surface and stormwaters from the City of Berkeley’s stormwater drainage system are ultimately discharged into local creeks and the San Francisco Bay; due to contaminants from various sources, the stormwater so discharged has become increasingly and unacceptably polluted. The City desires to reduce the amount of pollutants that enter the stormwater drainage system, and hence, the natural waterways, and further desires to meet the mandates of federal and state requirements regulating stormwater quality, including the Alameda County Urban Runoff Clean Water Program and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit.

Every owner of real property in the City of Berkeley makes use of and is served by the City’s stormwater drainage system; each owner’s burden on and benefit from the system is related to impervious surface area on the real property to the extent that land that cannot absorb water contributes significantly more surface and stormwater to the system than if the land is left undeveloped in its natural state. The fees imposed by this chapter upon real property owners are solely for the purpose of raising income and revenue necessary to improve the quality of stormwater discharged from the City’s stormwater drainage system. (Ord. 6070-NS § 1 (part), 1991)