“We know we are going to have to pay for these $70 million in improvements,” he said. “We don’t have a choice. But we’re trying to figure out the most equitable way to do that.”
Water and sewer bills in 2010 will remain unchanged from the 2009 rates. An average city home with three or four residents using about 7,500 gallons of water a month would pay about $53 a month for a combined sewer and water bill, said Tom Vanderhorst, taxation and billing administrator.
The city conducts rate model studies every couple of years to make sure the utility bills will cover the costs to operate and expand the system, Beckdahl said. The most recent study didn’t show a need for an increase in 2010.
Another study is underway to figure out how to pay for upgrades to the sewer system.
As part of the Clean Water Act, cities nationwide must improve their sewer systems to significantly reduce how much raw sewage overflows into waterways during storms.
The city continues to negotiate with the Ohio and U.S. Environmental Protection agencies on its long-term plan to control sewer overflows, which could cost $70 million.
As a possible way to pay for that, the city hired Black & Veatch Corp. to study a storm-water utility.
That’s a fee that would measure how much storm water runs off of a property into the sewer system and then charges for handling it. For example, a business with a large roof and parking lot would create more storm run-off, so it would pay more than a home.
Part of the current sewer bill goes toward handling that run-off water, Beckdahl said, but a storm-water utility could break it out separately.
The study should wrap up by the fall.
Several cities have storm-water utilities, including Piqua and Newark.
“We are under an unfunded mandate from the EPA to improve our handling of sewer and storm water ... The current thinking is that a storm-water utility is the most equitable way to pass that cost along,” Beckdahl said.
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