On March 11, 2022, the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) amended the fees charged for regulated activities under the District’s Stormwater Management and Soil Erosion and Sediment Control Regulations.
Fees charged for reviewing stormwater management plans, soil erosion and sediment control plans, and green area ration plans - last revised in 2019 - have been updated to account for inflation. View the latest schedule of fees. These amendments introduced the following:
Automatic Annual Adjustments to Plan Review Fees
Since 2013, DOEE has adjusted the plan review fees on a near-annual basis through rulemakings to account for inflation. This most recent rulemaking removes the need for the annual publication of a rulemaking by adopting an automatic, yearly adjustment to these fees based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U). Fee updates occur each year on August 1 based on June CPI-U of that respective year.
Below, you can see an example of a fee adjustment and the historical June-to-June indices. Since 2013 is the base year for most of DOEE’s plan review fees this demonstrates how a $100 fee in June of 2013 would be adjusted over time.
|
Applicable Fee Rate Year |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
|
Date Effective |
7/19/13 |
12/5/14 |
2/5/16 |
4/21/17 |
--- |
1/31/20 |
--- |
3/11/22 |
4/10/22 |
8/1/22 |
|
CPI U Index |
233.50 |
238.34 |
238.64 |
241.02 |
244.96 |
251.99 |
256.14 |
257.80 |
271.70 |
296.31 |
|
Example Fee |
$100.00 |
$102.07 |
$102.20 |
$103.22 |
$104.90 |
$107.92 |
$109.70 |
$110.40 |
$116.36 |
126.90 |
|
% change |
-- |
2.1% |
0.1% |
1.0% |
1.6% |
2.9% |
1.6% |
0.6% |
5.4% |
9.1% |
Online Fee Payment Processing Fee
A 2.36% processing fee will be added to fees that are paid online.
A fee reduction for plan revisions
The review fee for plan revisions made to previously-approved plans has been reduced by 50%.
How to Pay Stormwater Fee
Online: When a fee is assessed, the Surface and Groundwater System (SGS) will send an email notification to the person identified as the site owner and the person who submitted the plan. This notification will include a link that you can use to view any fees associated with that plan and pay them through the online payment platform. This platform accepts both Visa and MasterCard. The system may time out after 1 minute.
You can also look up fees for any plan using the DOEE plan number or fee ID number (available in the fee invoice). To do this, go to the surface and ground water system and click on the blue “Pay Fees” button on the login page (if you are not logged in or do not have an SGS account) or on your SGS home page (if you are logged into your account). Enter either the DOEE plan number or fee ID and click “Display Report”. If the fee still needs to be paid, there will be a blue button called “Pay Fee”. Click it to begin the payment process.
Note that you do not need to log into your SGS account to pay the fees, but you will need to log into view fee assessment details or download a PDF invoice.
In Person: You can pay fees in person at the Cashiers Office located at 1101 4th Street SW Washington, DC 20024.
You will need two copies of the invoice and a copy of the SOAR revenue/receipts for each requirement your plan has: SWMP, ESC, and/or GAR. For example, an Erosion and Sediment Control (ESC) only plan will need two copies of the invoice and one copy of the SOAR receipt for their ESC fees. A Stormwater Management and ESC plan will need two copies of the invoice and one SOAR receipt for the Stormwater Management fees, and two copies of the invoice and one SOAR receipt for the ESC fees, etc. If you don’t have these documents with you, you won't be able to pay the fee.
Once your fee has been paid, log into the SGS and upload a copy of the receipt to your plan. This can be done in the “Plan Documents” section via the “Add Documents” button.
