ST. LOUIS — If you live in St. Louis or St. Louis County, there's a new effort to raise your monthly sewer bill.
It's called Prop S and voters will make the final decision next Tuesday at the polls.
Ed Mucci said he's a fervent supporter of Prop S.
Like an unwelcome house guest, any time the clouds get dark, a rushing river takes over the Mucci backyard and won't leave for days.
"Each time there’s a heavy rain, there’s more erosion that takes place," said Mucci.
Of course, it wasn't like this when they bought the place in 2006.
"I don’t know, six foot, 10 foot," said Mucci on how much the creek bank as eroded.
Now, they just hope there's a house still standing in a few years.
"Trees are gonna fall. They’re going to fall either into the creek or into the house," he said.
If Prop S passes, the Metropolitan Sewer District could fix problems like these for you.
"About $500-million worth of projects that we’ve identified very preliminarily. What we’re proposing is going at that at about 30 million dollars a year," said Brian Hoelscher, the Executive Director of MSD.
We asked Hoelscher why they want another hike when it's only been three years since their last hike.
"What they voted for three years ago was the actual public storm sewers, the rest of the stormwater system — open channels, backyard ditches — don’t fall under the purview of MSD. However, we do have the ability to go forward, take care of some of these problems, if folks would like to offer us the revenue to do it," Hoelscher said.
To pay for repairs, MSD would charge you depending on how much impervious property you own. In other words, that's how much of your property that doesn't absorb water.
MSD has a whole website set up to estimate your new bill. The average customer would only pay an additional $2.25.
Ed says, he understands that people without flooding problems won't want to pay, but warns, he didn't think he had a problem either, until he did.
"They might, you never know," Ed said.
MSD said low-income customers can qualify for a reduced rate increase.
Voters can vote for or against Prop S, next Tuesday during the municipal election.