LEWISTON – Pepperell Mill owner Bob Gladu will get 30 days to prove three properties he owns don’t dump storm water into the city systems, councilors agreed Tuesday.

If he does, he would qualify for credit in the city’s storm-water fee program and could see the amount he owes the city cut in half.

Gladu owes $46,433.28 in storm-water fees and another $5,896 in interest and late fees for the two-lot Pepperell Mill on Lisbon Street and Adams Avenue and a strip mall at 445 Pleasant St.

Councilors heard Gladu’s appeal of the fees at a special hearing Tuesday night in City Hall. City Administrator James Bennett and Public Services Director Dave Jones presented the city’s case, saying the fees had been calculated fairly and accurately.

Gladu, represented by lawyer Scott Lynch, argued that the city had never informed him he could qualify for the credit to reduce his costs.

“He was never told that this procedure was available, while other similar properties applied and received these credits,” Lynch said. “That is the very example of inequitable treatment.”

The city adopted the storm-water utility fee in 2005 to pay for culvert maintenance, street-sweeping and storm-sewer projects. Fees are based on the amount of hard surface on properties, including roofs, sidewalks, parking lots and driveways.

Single-family homes pay $40 per year; duplexes, $45 per year. All others, including businesses, churches and nonprofits, pay 4.4 cents per square foot of paved or hard surface. The fee brought in about $1.3 million to the city in 2007 and is expected to bring in $2 million in the 2008-09 fiscal year.

The city created a credit program to reward property owners who handle storm runoff themselves. Hill Mill on Cedar and Chestnut streets had its fees cut in half with those credits. Bennett said the company was able to show that its storm runoff flows into the Florida Power and Light-owned canal and directly into the Androscoggin River, never touching city property.

Most of the storm runoff from Gladu’s Pepperell Mill flows into a tunnel under the buildings that is part of the Gully Brook system and flows directly into the river.

Lynch pushed councilors to give Gladu the credit on the spot, but councilors declined, saying they were not qualified. But they were concerned that Gladu had not been told about the credit program.

“People, looking at city ordinances and policies, don’t always know about this stuff,” Councilor Denis Theriault said. “That’s where customer service has to come in, where we go above and beyond.”

Councilors gave Gladu 30 days to file his application for the storm-water credit. Staff will have 30 days to approve or deny his application.