Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
Published: October 16, 2002
Sewer rates rise steadily
Rate charges in the Spartanburg Sanitary Sewer District have increased every
year since 1998, climbing 44 percent across five fiscal years.
By Diane Norman
Rate charges in the Spartanburg Sanitary Sewer District have increased every year since 1998, climbing 44 percent across five fiscal years.
The figures include a 7.5-percent increase between fiscal 1999 and 2000, a
13.9-percent jump in 2001, a 7.5-percent increase in 2002 and a 9.5-percent
increase that went into effect July 1.
Though the percentages are startling, the dollar amount is low, said Manning
Lynch, chairman of the five-member sewer district commission.
An average residential customer has seen his bimonthly sewer bill rise $12.19
over the five-year period, according to a rate comparison provided by the sewer
district.
The chief reason for the steady climb in sewer rates has been the construction
of roughly $60 million in capital improvements, said Graham Rich, sewer district
general manager.
The improvements have been driven by the need to replace outdated equipment and
meet stricter federal regulations, Rich said.
“Our rates have gone up, there’s no question about it,” Rich said. “But we’ve
improved our level of compliance.
“We’ve been able to attract industry to the area. We’ve been able to keep
industry in the area. We believe we’ve been able to improve water quality in
streams,” he said.
The rising cost of infrastructure is an issue for providers of wastewater
treatment nationwide, said Adam Krantz, communications director for the
Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies in Washington, D.C.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a report
that estimates the nation’s utilities need $442 billion for infrastructure
improvements through 2019.
“We’re facing an enormous problem, so one way local communities can deal with
the problem is raising rates,” Krantz said.
Spartanburg’s annual increases are not out of line for a community with
dispersed growth, Krantz said.
“I wouldn’t say that 9 percent or 10 percent (a year) would be all that
extraordinary,” Krantz said.
Over the past 10 years, the Spartanburg Sanitary Sewer District has eliminated
11 small treatment plants that couldn’t be expanded or upgraded, Rich said.
“What we did is we took a lot of small plants, and we built fewer, larger
regional plants,” he said.
One key project was the $6 million spent to replace the wastewater treatment
system serving the city of Landrum. State health officials had forbidden Landrum
to add users to the outdated system.
The district’s customer accounts have grown from 24,286 in 1992 to 31,604 in
2002. Annual revenues rose from $7.47 million in 1993 to $12.65 million last
year, a 69 percent increase.
This year, the sewer district has allocated about $15 million toward $80 million
in capital improvements to be completed in 2007.
The cost of those projects is likely to increase rates in years to come, Rich
said.
“Nobody wants to see rates go up, but nobody wants to ensure that we run a tight
ship any more than the commissioners do,” said Lynch, the commission chairman.
The amount of the increases will depend on many variables, including the number
of new customers coming into the system.
“I couldn’t commit to a figure,” Lynch said. “… It’s a fairly complicated puzzle
to put together.”
Despite the increases, “our rates are still one of the most competitive in the
state,” Rich said.
The average sewer bill for a Spartanburg County user is lower than those in
Greer, Greenville, Charleston and Asheville, N.C., according to a comparison
compiled by the Spartanburg Sanitary Sewer District.