Steubenville residents can be pardoned if they are becoming dizzy from the parade of dollar amounts and percentages emanating from city council discussions about water, sewerage and garbage disposal rate increases.

Give council members credit, however. For many months, they have been struggling with problems not of their own making — and doing their best to keep the solutions affordable for city residents and businesses.

Something decisive simply has to be done. There is no way around it for city officials. Both the water and sewerage systems suffer from years of neglect and failure in the past to pay for necessary maintenance and periodic upgrades.

How bad is it? By one estimate, as much as two-thirds of the water sent out into distribution lines from the treatment plan leaks out before reaching customers’ taps. Line breaks and resulting interruptions in service have become regular occurrences.

In addition, the city is being mandated by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to make certain improvements in the sewerage system.

What will taking care of all this cost? Various estimates have been presented. Rate increases in the 30 percent range have been suggested by a consultant and city water and wastewater supervisors.

Council members have balked at that. Some Steubenville residents simply cannot afford the $23.70 more a month being discussed for water, sewer and garbage collection, they say.

Last week, Councilwoman Kimberly Hahn recommended an alternative. It would increase water and sewer rates by 10 percent. Garbage collection would not cost more until 2021.

A key to her plan seems to be convincing Ohio EPA officials to be more flexible about mandated improvements. “There has to be an appeal to the Ohio EPA that we have limits,” she said.

Indeed there does. But it will be surprising if officials in Columbus agree to go along with the limits on improvements that would be necessary to hold costs down under Hahn’s 10 percent proposal.

And, as City Manager Jim Mavromatis emphasized, “We need to attack this problem. … Yes, it’s going to hurt.”

Perhaps a reasonable approach would be to consider rate increases somewhere between the 10 percent and 30 percent levels. The more money city officials raise, the more likely the Ohio EPA is to agree to a money-saving compromise.

What should not be considered, however, is holding rates down and ignoring repairs and improvements that are absolutely vital. That attitude, after all, is what created the current problem in the first place.