We’re nearly six years removed from the day the City of Fairmont learned a tough lesson — state-of-the-art technology is great, but not when it doesn’t quite “fit.”
A perfect storm hit the city’s water filtration system, just a few years old at the time, and nearly shut it down for the thousands of customers who rely on Fairmont water coming through their taps.
Environmental and weather conditions, coupled with an ultra-filtration process not capable of handling muddied source water, and a collection pond in serious need of dredging, showed the flaws of the filtration system that was once lauded as the best this side of the Mississippi.
It’s like putting a brand-new sports car engine in a little compact car. It just doesn’t fit.
So after long meetings and conferences and legal battles designed to assign blame, Fairmont walks away with very little money and some product for the system. That meant that the Corrective Action Plan (CAP), coming in at $12.8 million, would have to be financed by customers of the utility. The same customers who have seen their water bill increase by 363 percent since 2001.
The CAP project is now complete. City officials “cut the ribbon” on the new-and-improved water filtration system last week. There was a very similar ribbon-cutting ceremony nine years ago, albeit more joyous, when the ribbon was cut on the brand-new water filtration system.
But that was before the 2007 water crisis and the $12.8 million project to fix it.
Customers were hopeful that when federal money poured in for the CAP project — a $4.4 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and a $4.4 million 30-year loan with a zero percent interest rate — perhaps water rates would roll back. Not so.
Officials held the line and said despite the free federal money, they needed the rates to be maintained in order to finish the project, as well as other improvements to the system.
“We need to keep it all up, the plant and the distribution system,” City Manager Jay Rogers told the Times West Virginian late last week. “If you don’t maintain it, your community gets to the point that it has to replace everything all at once, and in some small way, Fairmont’s already done that. We put water lines in the ground nearly 100 years ago and haven’t looked at them since.”
The water-rate increase wasn’t just about the filtration plant, Rogers said. It was about the overall improvement of the water system. Had the unexpected gift from the federal stimulus package not come, these projects would have meant another rate increase or increases.
These improvements include: a new generator for the pump stations, since the late-June power outage almost brought the water system to a halt again; the Automated Meter Reading (AMR) program, a digitized process that’s intended to help the city fix its water-loss rate of 32 percent, more that half what the state’s Public Service Commission says is acceptable; and to cover replacement of water lines, as the city has 280 miles of water lines that vary in age from new to 80 years old.
So, no. There won’t be a roll back of rates. There won’t be relief for customers. City officials say these projects, however, should stabilize the system and prevent any future rate increase. Well, with the disclaimer that the costs of everything from chemicals to vehicles keep increasing, leaving the door open for rate increases in the future.
Yes, the cost of everything keeps going up. Especially the cost of water.
But considering the $4.4 million grant the city received was not initially factored into the CAP project, one would think the city has an actual $4.4 million cushion to rest on before any rate increase would be needed.
As a result, customers should be safe from seeing any potential water-rate increases for many, many years.
Opinion
Stabilized water system in city should prevent rate increases
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