Hammond, IN Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

C. 5-5 in full and creates a Stormwater Management Division inside the Hammond Sanitary District, governed by a Board of Directors made up of the Sanitary District Commissioners. The Stormwater Management District covers the entire corporate boundary of the city and automatically expands or contracts with annexation, per Sec. 001. The Board's jurisdiction is exclusive: it can write and enforce its own rules, hold public hearings, make findings, install and operate collection and disposal facilities, and improve the grounds under its control. Any user fee the Board wants to charge property owners for operating and maintaining the system needs Common Council approval first, and the ordinance caps those fees at 'the minimum amount necessary for the operation and maintenance of the stormwater system,' so the Board cannot pad the rate.

002 sets the Division's purpose as safe, efficient capture and conveyance of runoff, mitigating flood and erosion damage, correcting collection and conveyance problems citywide, and funding the design, planning, education, construction, inspection and enforcement work that keeps Hammond's NPDES stormwater permit in good standing. The same section directs that stormwater service charges be allocated so each user pays a share proportionate to the cost of serving that property, not a flat citywide rate. Property owners who discharge or connect to the system, or who are billed the stormwater utility fee, fall under this Division's authority rather than the general Department of Public Works. Disputes over the Board's rules or fee determinations go through the appeal and hearing process the chapter sets out for the Board itself.