City unveils new drainage charge tool

The Watershed Protection Department announced Monday that it has rolled out a new tool to help Austinites understand the new drainage charge that the city will apply to residential and commercial accounts in November. The tool, called “Find My Drainage Charge,” is particularly helpful to residents of single-family homes, business owners and owners of multifamily properties. It is less useful, however, for residents living in multifamily properties, because the tool shows the drainage charge for the entire property, which the owner is required to pay and presumably split up fairly among tenants. The new charge is based primarily on the size of a customer’s lot and the amount of impervious cover – surfaces that don’t absorb rainwater – on that lot.