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Steubenville Talks Major Water Rate Increase

STEUBENVILLE — The average city water, sewer and sanitation bill would rise by $40.04 in October under the beginning of a proposed five-year series of rate increases introduced Tuesday evening to City Council.

The increases are needed to cover an estimated $29.75 million in projects, equipment and required employees in the water and sewer departments, including refurbishing three water towers; millions of dollars in water line and main valve replacements; and major improvements at the city sewage treatment plant.

City Council is planning a series of three townhall meetings for 6 p.m. July 30 and Aug. 1-2 at locations to be announced to allow citizens to hear the city’s explanation of the increases and to ask questions. Second Ward Councilman Craig Petrella asked that council hold off bringing in an ordinance for the increases until after the townhall sessions, to allow for citizen input.

Finance Director David Lewis explained the plan to council as a whole meeting as the utility committee, finally giving direction to months of questions about projects and costs and the need to pay for it all after a January failure of the downtown water system that left that part of the city dry for 12 days. That failure brought in the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency with a list of projects, as well as pushing the city and the OEPA off dead center on a list of needed sewer projects that have been stalled in a longstanding consent decree.

Lewis said the rates represent the costliest possibilities in the next five years as well as a small surplus to deal with any emergencies that rise such as major line breaks or other problems.

While 5th Ward Councilman Willie Paul asked if the first year rate increase could be split in two with half in October and half later to lessen the impact of the big initial increase, the hard fact remains the proposed minimum bill eventually would rise from $68.82 a month now to $92.52, a $23.70 increase. Lewis said he has to check if splitting the increases over time would impact applying for financing because the city needs to show an ability to repay bonds and loans.

The increase schedule would see the water, sewer and sanitation bills rise by an additional $5.30 in 2019, $5.40 in 2020, $6.40 in 2021 and $7 in 2022. The total minimum bill increase would be $47.80 for the base bill as of October 2022. The total increase would be 69.5 percent from current base rates.

Above the base bill, the fees for every 1,000 gallons over the minimum for water would stand at $14.75 and $12.77 for sewage.

The monthly bills include a rising infrastructure charge in the water and sewer accounts. Currently, the infrastructure charge is $3.90 in the water fund only. That would rise in October and begin being collected in November at $6.95 for water and 85 cents for sewage. The water infrastructure charge would rise to $12.25 (an increase of $5.30) in October 2019 and level at $16.15 in October 2020 (an increase of another $3.90). The sewer infrastructure charge wouldn’t rise from the 85 cent level until October 2021, when it would be set at $2.25, an additional $1.65.

Many of the sewer projects are costlier than the water projects and involve controlling stormwater flowing with sanitary sewage in the city system. The EPA says the city has overflowed millions of gallons of sewage into the river during storms because of the combined system and groundwater infiltration into the sanitary sewers. Part of that work will include keeping groundwater from infiltrating the sewers, such as along the Spahn’s Branch line, which is above ground and running along a creek in the West End with replacement estimated at more than $2 million.

Council heard from representatives of Arcadis Engineering about progress on an asset management plan that will be submitted to the state in October as part of the process of obtaining a $7 million financing package from the state including $3.5 million as a loan and $3.5 million as a grant (half the $7 million loan forgiven over time) to cover a major valve project in the water system after the January failure.

Kevin Slavin, who worked on an asset management plan after Flint, Michigan, drew national attention for its water system’s failure in 2016, said the city will have to undertake yearly testing of critical valves and test others on a regular schedule every other year. The city plans to hire additional personnel for the water department to allow formation of a regular valve crew, as well as an assistant superintendent to help oversee the water and sewer projects, and an administrative support person.

Slavin said the city needs to have the valve exercise plan in place by the state’s October deadline. He said work is progressing on gathering field data to put into the city’s geographic information system on the valves and city pipes. He said of the 100 miles of water pipes, only 24 percent has diameters listed, only 22 percent has install dates listed and only 4 percent details the materials for the pipes. He said his personnel have gone over 13,000 drawings of the city’s water system on microfilm and has digitized them. He said about 25 percent of the GIS system update, which will let information about the water system be easily found on a computer map, is done.

He said a first draft of the city water asset management plan should be complete by October.

Thomas Hartwig of Arcadis said the firm has spent only 25 percent of the budget set by the city for the asset management plan and associated work so far. Christina Sporer of Arcadis provided council an update about grants and loans the city can use for the projects. She said while Jefferson County has used USDA financing for major water and sewer projects, the city cannot qualify for USDA loans, which are for rural areas. She said there are other programs to use and advised seeking those, including Ohio Public Works Commission money, using a portion of the annual allocation of Community Development Block Grant money and seeking funds through the Federal Section 594 program administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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