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Big water bills may get much bigger to curb use

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Residential customers of the Fayette County Water System who use a lot of water may soon face increased rates, thanks to state requirements aimed at curbing water usage.

The county’s water committee is recommending that customers who use more than 20,000 gallons of water a month pay $3.80 for each extra 1,000 gallons over that limit. Currently, water users pay a flat $16 fee for the first 2,000 gallons and $2.80 for each subsequent 1,000 gallons of water.

The new pricing must first be adopted by the Fayette County Board of Commissioners; the water committee action is a recommendation only.

Because the increase wouldn’t kick in until customers reach the 20,000 gallon threshold, the change will be felt by roughly 10 percent of the system’s residential customers, according to Water System Director Tony Parrott.

The new pricing would not change the water rates assessed to commercial customers because the state Environmental Protection Division isn’t requiring that, Parrott said.

The focus from the EPD is on curbing residential water use, and if the county didn’t enact the water conservation pricing, it might have a difficult time renewing its water withdrawal permits, Parrott said.

Committee Chairman Chuck Watkins abstained from the discussion and the vote at Wednesday’s meeting since he is in the business of installing irrigation systems. After the meeting, Watkins said he felt abstaining from the issue was the smart thing to do, but he admitted that he disagreed with the price increase in large part because the EPD isn’t requiring a rate increase for commercial customers.

“Hoshizaki can go out and use all the water they want,” Watkins said, “And a guy wanting to water his yard can’t.”

In other business, the committee recommended selecting the only bid received for the annual waterline extension contract. Shockley Plumbing was the only one of eight businesses that bid on the project, and the price of $1.061 million is roughly 5 percent more than last year after changes to the contract made by the county were contemplated, said county consulting engineer David Jaeger.

Shockley Plumbing provided great service and quick response to short waterline extensions and repairs over the last year, Jaeger noted. The other seven companies were contacted by fax and phone, but Jaeger said he didn’t know exactly why none of them offered a bid on the project.

Jaeger guessed that Shockley’s reputation for being a competitive bidder may have scared off other companies from bidding.