Sewer-Use Charges Increased

By Andrew Gorosko

The Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) has increased municipal sewer-use charges to ensure that revenues collected cover the costs of operating the town sewer system.

The sewer use rate hike, which was unanimously approved by WPCA members July 26, increases the charges by just over seven percent. Voting in favor were WPCA Chairman Richard Zang, and members Alan Shepard, Eleanor Mayer, and Jan Andras. Absent from the WPCA meeting were members Tim LaChapelle, Carl Zencey, and Charles Yarish.

The WPCA has increased the sewer use rate from $4.65 per 1,000 gallons of water used to $4.98 per 1,000 gallons of water used, reflecting a rate increase of 33 cents per 1,000 gallons of water used.

When the sewer system began operation in September 1997, the sewer use rate was $4.40 per 1,000 gallons of water used. The $4.65 rate has been in effect since 1998.

 A typical quarterly residential sewer use bill is approximately $75. The proposed rate hike increases that bill to just over $80, provided that water usage remains constant.

A typical household composed of three people uses between 180 and 200 gallons of water daily.

Sewer-use charges are based on 90 percent of the volume of water used by sewer customers. The sewer charges are calculated using readings from water meters.

The new sewer-use rate is retroactive to July 1 and will be reflected in sewer-use bills to be mailed to customers in September and October.

Town Public Works Director Fred Hurley termed the increased sewer-use fees “a very modest rate hike.”

In late June, the WPCA held a public hearing on the rate hike proposal, but there were no comments from the public.

 Mr Hurley said that in the future, the WPCA may approve relatively smaller annual sewer-use rate increases, in the area of two percent to four percent annually. Such rate increases would cover inflation and also cover equipment depreciation costs associated with the sewer system, he said.

Mr Hurley projects sewer system operating costs for the 2001-2002 fiscal year at approximately $667,000.

The municipal sewer system serves the Borough, Taunton Lake North, Sandy Hook Center, Nunnawauk Meadows, Fairfield Hills, and Garner Correctional Institution. The $34 million sewer system began operation in September 1997. The town built the sewer system to correct groundwater pollution problems caused by numerous failing septic systems.

Sewer-use charges are separate from sewer assessment charges, through which sewer users and all town taxpayers are paying off the capital costs of constructing the sewer system.

The town operates a second, much smaller sewer system in Hawleyville, which sends wastewater to the Danbury sewage plant for treatment. That sewer system was built to stimulate the economic development of Hawleyville. The Homesteads at Newtown, an elderly housing complex, is the first user of that sewer system.