Monte mulls sewer, water rate changes
March 10, 1999., by Terry Loney - Daily World Writer, The Aberdeen Daily World
MONTESANO - Montesano residents could soon be feeling the bite of large increases in their sewer and water bills.
The City Council is considering increasing sewage rates 86 percent and water rates could be more than doubled. Those increases, which could be phased in over a three-year period, are needed to meet an obligation for a grant the city received in the late 1980s to cover part of the cost of an $11 million sewage treatment plant.
Councilman Richard Stone, who presented the increases to the council at Tuesday's meeting said the rate increases are just one of two options the Council is considering.
Stone said the city needs to increase the sewer rate to meet requirements for the grant it received from the Environmental Protection Agency which was administered by the state Department of Ecology.
The Department of Ecology required the city to raise enough money from sewer bills to pay for the operation of the plant.
The rate increases are coming about 10 years after completion of the plant because the city needed time to determine the actual costs, Stone said.
Sharon Morgan, clerk controller, said because the plant used an experimental design, operation costs had to be calculated over a period of years. Stone said the city was not able to begin determining actual operational costs until three years ago.
Current sewage rates are 58 cents per 100 cubic feet of sewage. The proposed increase would raise that to $1.08.
The current water rate is 25 cents per 100 cubic feet and would increase to 62 cents.
The present fee structure does not cover the cost of operating the sewage treatment plant. The city is currently using $300,000 per year of the revenues it receives from timber sales on the 5,000 acres the city water and sewer department owns to subsidize the costs of water and sewer.
Stone also presented an alternative that would shuffle the costs and revenues, but could result in no increase in customers' bills.
"The other alternative is to simply raise the rates on the sewer fairly significantly because of the cost and reduce the water rates (from 25 cents to 10 cents per 100 cubic feet) to offset the sewer increase," he said. Sewer rates would still increase to about $1.08, he added.
Under this alternative the $300,000 would be used to subsidize just the cost of providing water, Stone said. Customers' bills would remain the same and the city would meet the requirements, he said.
Jeff Meeks, city councilman, said before the meeting that he favors the shuffle in rates so there's a zero net effect on bills.
Stone also said he feels it is the obligation of the city to reduce the water rate if it increases the sewer rate.
However, there may be a catch to the alternative. Stone said he is not sure if the city will be able to use the timber sale subsidy for that purpose. That is something the council would have to study further, he said.
One concern some had about the city depending on timber sales to subsidize the cost of water was that the forest was damaged in the December 1996 ice storm. The damage was so extensive timber harvests had to be reduced. It was estimated by the council that it will be at least another three or four years before normal timber harvest patterns could begin again.
Stone said the city has enough to pay the subsidy for seven years without cutting more timber.
Councilman Meeks said it is reassuring to know there is enough in the fund to last that long. Stone said a proposal on which type of increase the council will seek will be presented at the next City Council meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 23.
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