01/11/2012

Council sets Feb. 13 hearing on proposed sewer-rate increases

The Town Council will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13, 2012, on a proposal to increase sewer rates by a total of 20 percent over the next four years.

Revenue from the proposed increase is intended to help pay for recent updates to the Southern Cape treatment facility on Spurwink Avenue; and, ongoing efforts to curtail overflow near the Ottawa Road pump station, which serves the Northern Cape system and part of South Portland.

The Town Council is expected to review the rate-increase proposal at their workshop Jan. 11, 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

In a memo to the Town Council, Town Manager Michael McGovern said the cost of improvements to address "combined sewer overflow" at Ottawa Road is estimated at $2.5 million over five years.

Combined sewer overflows

During wet weather, storm and groundwater infiltrates the sewer system and combines with untreated wastewater. "Combined sewer overflows" are relief points in the system that discharge this excess to prevent backups.

The combined sewer overflow point at the Ottawa Road pump station has a decades-long history of overflowing, but was just licensed in 2009 by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The license requires a mitigation plan to reduce the number and severity of combined sewer overflow releases.

The $2.5 million would fund a draft five-year improvement plan that focuses on identifying and removing sources of infiltration into the system.

McGovern is proposing that most of the money come from a $1.8 to $2 million, 15-year bond to be issued in 2014, but he is also recommending that $500,000 to $700,000 of the cost be funded with existing sewer-fund balances. The bond will also require $150,000 for annual amortization costs

Rate increases

The proposed sewer-rate increases are an extension of a rate-increase plan approved by the council in 2008. That year, the council approved a 4-percent increase in rates through 2011, projected at that time to help fund improvements to the Southern Cape Treatment facility. The upgrade at the Southern Cape plant was also intended to reduce overflow during heavy rains.

"We must now address the balance of the revenue requirement and it is timely to consider how we will fund continuing updates of the older parts of our system, and especially the need to curtail the combined sewer outfall (CSO) from the Ottawa Road pump station," McGovern's memo says.

The proposal now before the Town Council would raise the rate for the first 100 cubic feet monthly measured water usage, now at $37.70; and for each additional 100 cubic feet, now at $4.95.

Here are the proposed increases that would take place over four years:

Effective March 1, 2012
$40.00 Up to 100 cubic feet of monthly measured water usage
$ 5.10 Each additional 100 cubic feet or fraction thereof, of monthly measured usage
Increase - 4.5 percent

Effective March 1, 2013
$43.00 Up to 100 cubic feet of monthly measured water usage
$ 5.25 Each additional 100 cubic feet or fraction thereof, of monthly measured usage
Increase - 5.7 percent

Effective March 1, 2014
$46.00 Up to 100 cubic feet of monthly measured water usage
$ 5.41 Each additional 100 cubic feet or fraction thereof, of monthly measured usage
Increase - 5.4 percent

Effective March 1, 2015
$48.00 Up to 100 cubic feet of monthly measured water usage
$ 5.57 Each additional 100 cubic feet or fraction thereof, of monthly measured usage
Increase - 3.8 percent

The sewer connection fee would remain $4,000, as it has been since 2010.

The proposed sewer rates would result in $349,295 more in annual revenue in 2016 than in 2012, McGovern said in his memo.

Representatives from the Portland Water District are slated to attend the Jan. 11 workshop.