The Scupper Ledger: what a drainage and stormwater system costs, and who pays
Leave this page holding one figure with its period — a revenue requirement, a rate per billing unit, a reserve balance or a cost per property, and the fiscal year it belongs to — and one of three actions: set the rate, fund the reserve, or rule the entry off as decided.
This ledger follows the money side of drainage: what a system costs to build, to run and to replace, who pays for it, and how the figure is arrived at. Ten accounts define the objects. Seven postings are the procedures. Six entries are dated records of what was measured and where the sources disagree.
The clock here is the fiscal period. Every entry carries the period it belongs to and the date that period closes, and an entry whose figures move is marked recast while its address stays the same.
The spine · FY2026 · Q3
| period | state | entries | balance | closed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2026 · Q3 | open | 23 accounts posted | balance carried forward | closes 2026-09-30 |
| FY2026 · Q2 | closed | 11 accounts revised | 6.1 M carried forward | closed 2026-06-30 |
| FY2026 · Q1 | closed | 9 accounts revised | 5.4 M carried forward | closed 2026-03-31 |
| FY2025 · Q4 | closed | 14 accounts revised | 4.9 M carried forward | closed 2025-12-31 |
Accounts and postings in the current period
| folio | account | cabinet | figure | entered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 301 | fee funded against tax funded | Entries | 589 per property | 2026-09-02 |
| 302 | what a credit offsets | Entries | 14 % of the bill | 2026-08-19 |
| 303 | the reserve that was not there | Entries | 5.8 M gap | 2026-08-07 |
| 304 | two costs for one pipe | Entries | 1.9 M against 2.6 M | 2026-07-23 |
| 305 | damage cost per property recast | Entries | 74 k per property | 2026-07-09 |
| 306 | when a grant changes the ranking | Entries | 1.6 M net local | 2026-06-25 |
| 201 | set a stormwater rate recast | Postings | 0.18 per unit | 2026-09-16 |
| 202 | build a replacement reserve recast | Postings | 3.0 M annual need | 2026-09-16 |
| 203 | grade a pipe network recast | Postings | 10 km per year | 2026-09-16 |
| 204 | run a lifecycle cost model recast | Postings | 2.77 M present value | 2026-09-16 |
| 205 | write an impact fee study recast | Postings | 4,800 per unit | 2026-09-16 |
| 206 | read a budget to actual | Postings | 200 k capital variance | 2026-09-16 |
| 207 | price a green roof credit | Postings | 1,104 credit | 2026-09-16 |
| 101 | the stormwater utility fee recast | Accounts | 7.3 M per year | 2026-09-16 |
| 102 | the impervious area charge recast | Accounts | 0.18 per m² | 2026-09-16 |
| 103 | the stormwater credit recast | Accounts | 1.9 M forgone | 2026-09-16 |
| 104 | the capital improvement plan recast | Accounts | 13.1 M over six years | 2026-09-16 |
| 105 | the replacement reserve recast | Accounts | 9.0 M target | 2026-09-16 |
| 106 | the asset condition grade recast | Accounts | 2.1 M per year | 2026-09-16 |
| 107 | the level of service recast | Accounts | 7.3 M per year | 2026-09-16 |
| 108 | the lifecycle cost recast | Accounts | 5.4 M present value | 2026-09-16 |
| 109 | the benefit-cost ratio recast | Accounts | 1.4 ratio | 2026-09-16 |
| 110 | the bond and its debt service recast | Accounts | 737 k per year | 2026-09-16 |
| 001 | How we post | Flyleaf | four fields per figure | 2026-09-16 |
| 002 | Not entered | Flyleaf | eight refusals | 2026-09-16 |
| 003 | The flyleaf | Flyleaf | four tests | 2026-09-16 |
| 004 | Errata | Flyleaf | four fields per erratum | 2026-09-16 |
| 005 | Disclosure | Flyleaf | nothing collected | 2026-09-16 |
How this ledger is kept
An entry is posted from documents that can be opened and read, and every figure on it carries four things: the amount with its unit, the fiscal period it belongs to, the document it was posted from, and the method that produced it. A figure missing any one of the four is not entered here. That is the whole posting rule and it is applied without exception.
Sources are deep links to specific documents with each document's own title as the link text, and every source states the sentence it supports. The ledger does not review products, does not sell anything, and does not enter figures it cannot source. What it refuses is listed on the not-entered sheet, with a reason per line.
ruled off Rule it off and stop when you have the figure, the period and the document. That is the whole job of the spine.
Documents posted to this account
- 01AWWA Stormwater Management Standard: a tool to support utility operationssupports the stormwater management standard the ledger's posting conventions follow
- 02M1 Principles of Water Rates, Fees, and Charges, Seventh Edition (sample)supports the rate-setting principles that the ledger's figures are read against
- 0310 Steps: To Developing Utility Ratessupports the step-by-step rate development method the posting rule is modelled on
Each line points at one specific document, with its own title as the link text. No line is a home page and no line is a search result.