Published: November 14, 2009 08:27 pm      

GALLIGAN: Sewer rate increases are a must

On Monday, the Jeffersonville City Council will consider the finals readings of ordinance 2009-OR-43, which will dramatically increase the rates our city’s sewer customers pay during the next six years.

Though this rate increase has been discussed publicly for about a year, I thought it might be appropriate to offer another public explanation of these rate increases as the council’s vote approaches.

First and foremost, the city council has no choice. Jeffersonville is a combined sewer overflow — CSO — community. Combined sewer overflows violate the Clean Water Act and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is making every CSO community – all 107 of us in Indiana and all 772 of us nationally – reduce or eliminate CSOs.

In about 1,000 acres of downtown Jeffersonville — roughly from Main Street west to the corporate limit with the Town of Clarksville — we have combined sewers, which carry storm and sanitary sewage. During heavy rains and snow melts, this portion of our collection system becomes overwhelmed, causing raw — but diluted — sanitary sewage to spill into waterways such as the Ohio River. This is unhealthy for aquatic life. It’s unhealthy for people. And it’s a violation of the Clean Water Act, which was enacted by Congress in 1972 and has been amended multiple times since then.

In August — after 20 months of negotiations — the Jeffersonville Sanitary Sewer Board entered into a consent decree with the EPA, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, relative to combined sewer overflows. Next month, we will amend the consent decree when we submit our long-term control plan for CSOs to EPA. These documents are, in effect, the Clean Water Act in Jeffersonville and are binding on our city. The consent decree has been filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana and is the rule of law here.

As a result of the consent decree, the Sanitary Sewer Board will spend more than $100 million on work to reduce CSOs. The board’s primary revenues are collected through the monthly sewer bills you pay. Because the sewer utility was not designed to operate with a profit — revenues collected are supposed to maintain and enhance the system and nothing else — there is no pool of unused funds that can be applied toward this $100 million. So, rate increases are necessary in order for us to comply with the law and perform the improvements that are required of us.

During the past 11 years, sewer rates in the city of Jeffersonville have increased once — a 35 percent increase at the beginning of 2005. That rate increase helped fund the first $23 million in projects, relative to the reduction of CSOs in this city.

Our average residential bill in Jeffersonville is about $24 per month. The ordinance the council is considering will increase rates in five steps. The first step will increase the average residential bill to about $50 per month. Those rates will remain in effect for about two years, before annual increases —leading to average monthly bills of about $55, $60, $66 and $72 — take effect on Jan. 1 in 2012 through 2015.

I’ve heard some people say that we should have let EPA sue us, rather than sign the consent decree. Evansville took that approach and got slapped with a $126 million fine for past violations of the Clean Water Act. Those are fines, money wasted for sake of belligerence. That figure doesn’t include the money Evansville’s sewer customers will have to fork over to do the work that is needed to fix their system.

And, yes, we have been fined, too. The EPA could have asked for about $8.1 million in fines from Jeffersonville for past Clean Water Act violations. Because of our cooperation, it sought fines of $168,000 and we can get about $100,000 of that back for certain types of mitigation projects. So, we’ve already save nearly $8 million, just by coming to the table and talking to these folks.

It was recently suggested that the council put off this vote, that this ordinance be tabled until a judge tells the council to vote. That’s not the best idea.

When the long-term control plan is accepted, the clock starts. In order for us to proceed with more work, we must have funding in place. Once we start missing deadlines, fines for new Clean Water Act violations begin. If we miss deadlines because of not having a funding mechanism in place, then our council members risk being found in contempt of court.

None of us want to increase your sewer rates. I chair the sewer board, serving with former Mayor Dale Orem and professional engineer Bill Saegesser. None of us wanted to have to recommend that the council increase your rates, but we are bound by the law to do so. None of our council members — Ron Grooms, Keith Fetz, Nathan Samuel, Connie Sellers, Mike Smith, Barbara Wilson and Ed Zastawny — want to increase your rates, yet the vote on the first reading or 2009-OR-43 was 7-0, because each of them is smart enough to know that federal law is applicable in Jeffersonville.

We are asking for no more money than we need to do the work the law requires us to do. But rest assured, whether the council increases the rates by approving this ordinance Monday or whether a U.S. District Court judge orders them to increase the rates, your sewer rates must increase in order for Jeffersonville comply with the Clean Water Act.

— Tom Galligan is the mayor of Jeffersonville.