Sewer Rate Increases Pass

Euclid City Council did pass higher sewer and water rates for Euclid customers. Satellite communities will also see increases to help pay for mandated improvements to out sewer system. (see prior posts). On the rate increase for the Waste Water Treatment Plant, that increase passed 5-4.

Everyone on Council and in the Administration understands the need to comply with the Consent Decree that Council approved last year. No one suggests that Euclid should fight the Federal Government. We all know that some additional money was needed now to keep the system from insolvency. And, we reached this point because of inaction from the Administration.

For example:

1) It was recommended that rates to run the plant be raised all the way back in Oct 2010. The Administration wasted all of 2011 doing nothing while the system slipped into insolvency.

2) The Administration knew for years that the Capital Fund (Peterson) Account was running short of money. Again, no action was taken in 2011. That meant critical projects could not be done, raising their ultimate cost.

This inaction backed Council into a corner: either pass some rate increase, or not be able to pay workers and pay back debt.

3) Since January, the Administration has presented different plans to comply with the EPA, and, different cost numbers. The estimates of the compliance plan has gone up 45 million dollars since January alone.

4) The City initially presented to Council 2010 cost estimates instead of the most current figures. In the meetings since, City Council has continue to receive incorrect, or out of date numbers.

5) When Council finally heard a formal presentation on the Membrane Technology on March 12, the representative from CT Consultant (the City Engineering firm) could not answer many questions, and, crafted his presentation in part, from the Wiekipidia entry on the technology.

6) We still don't know if the technology is truly ready for implementation in Euclid as the Council was just told last week that the technology was only now evaluated for readiness to use in a system like Euclid's

7) The Administration will now look at green infrastructure technology. While this is welcomed
this should have been done years ago as part of the overall planing process. There are potentially millions of dollars in savings in such programs.

8) EPA has not approved of any of the plant improvements

This chaotic, piecemeal, helter skelter approach in trying to convince Council to pass the largest rate increase in City history (with more increases to come) was simply inferior. They presented only half a program, a gray infrastructure program. You, as rate payers should truly question how system improvements are planned and, how your money is spent.

Four of us on City Council (Scarniench, Jones, Gilliham, Langman) proposed a compromise: raise the rates enough to keep the plant running, and, do needed (and approved) SSO projects. Delay the rest of the increases until you have; 1) EPA approval; 2) a better plan in place; 3)time to have more meeting with you, the rate payers.

That compromise was rejected. Instead, the Council majority simply rubber stamped the increase. Now that the Administration has the funding in place, Council lost its last chance to effectively monitor and improve the plan. The majority is counting on frequent meetings going forward to monitor progress. I am skeptical of this, as City Council did little in 2011 and has not really done this type of oversight for many years.

The Absurdity of the Majority

In the attempt to justify the rate increase, the Administration and some on Council claim that the increase is not a big deal because natural gas prices have dropped. In other words, it is less painful to you because you are saving money elsewhere. Of course, that argument is absurd. Just drive by any gas station. And with the rise in fuel prices, the cost of food is also rising. But more importantly, we in public service should NEVER presume to know what you can afford, or how you should be spending your money. We must always remember who we work for, and, have some understanding for how tough it is for many of you.

Some Good News

Also, Monday night, a resolution in support of Green infrastructure was unanimously passed by City Council. The Administration will develop a Request for Proposal to ask experienced firms to work with our current consultants to develop a comprehensive green infrastructure program.

While this should have been done years ago, and, the City is far behind, we can catch up. It will require some deliberate, focused action to get this firm on board quickly.

In the meantime you can do your part: If you are a home owner, you can keep water out of the storm system by disconnecting your downspout. For further details, call the City of Euclid Engineering Department at 289-8100 Ask about the downspout disconnect program. Since the City is going green, I'm sure someone at City Hall would be willing to help you.

In the meantime, don't forget to answer the poll questions.

Money Down the Drain - Sewer Rate Update

Since January 18, 2012, the City Administration has presented 4 public meetings on the need for higher sewer rates. To date, this is what we know:

The Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is demanding that the City of Euclid fix the 17 Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO's) and the 16 Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSO's). In the simplest terms, any "overflow" means waste, or contaminated, or dirty water that goes directly to Lake Erie. This is a violation of federal law, and, must be fixed.

1) At the end of 2008, Euclid City Council raised the Capital Sewer Rate (the Peterson Fund) to pay for all 17 CSO projects.

2) To date, none of these projects are done. This is because the drop in water consumption
offset the rise in the rate

The January 18, 2012 Euclid City Council Service Committee Meeting

At this meeting we also learned the following:

1) 2010 Estimates for fixing the CSO's and SSO's was 17.6 million dollars, with Waste Water Treatment fixes costing an additional 36 million dollars.

2) Total costs to comply with the Consent Decree was estimated at between 60-95 million dollars. CT Consultants, the City's engineering firm presented this higher range due in part to
the uncertainty in what the EPA will demand.

3) The increase in rates would pay for all of the system improvements

4) The improvements included building 6 large tanks behind the Waste Water Treatment Plant.
This would have required taking homes adjacent to the plant, and would have jeopardized the
Lakefront Community Center.

The Three Public Rate Meetings: Feb 24 - March 1st

1) The plan to take homes and build 6 tanks behind the plant was scraped: a better, newer
technology will allow the treatment of all storm water on the current plant space. It is better because it filters water to a higher standard than the EPA currently requires.

2) This "membrane technology" costs much more though: The first range of cost of improvements jumped up to between 105-135 million dollars. A 45 million dollar jump.

3) By the second rate meeting, the range of costs disappeared, landing at the 136 million dollar amount.

4) The proposed rate increase of approx 70 million dollars is not enough to pay for all the plant improvements. This is only PHASE ONE of the rate increases

What We Don't Know.

1) What the EPA will approve: more than likely, from all the conversations the City may never know exactly what the EPA wants. The City is fairly confident that the EPA will like the membrane technology because it does filter the water better.

2) The City knew about the better technology for at least three years now. Why they unveiled a plan that caused so much resistance and upset for the residents living next to the plant makes little sense.

3) The CSO and SSO fixes have risen in projected cost to about 22 million dollars. According to the Administration, they were using 2010 estimates. Why would they think that City Council was interested in obsolete data?

4) Does the membrane technology account for the rest of the 45 million range of cost increases?

5) What the next phase of rate increases will look like. This is slated for discussion at the end of this year.

As you can see, many questions remain. Monday, March 12th, 6:30 at City Hall, the Council will again meet on the proposed rate increase.

The Way Ahead

No matter what comes out of the meeting on Monday the approach to the problem should be this:

Incorporate Green Infrastructure approaches into the entire plan, both SO/SSO remediation and plant improvements. Keeping water out of the system can reduce overflows during storms, and, brings less water to the plant.

In other words, the current plan is incomplete and requires more work.
Rates should not go up until a more complete plan is developed. No rate increase now is probably not realistic given the many factors.

So, a rate structure should be adopted based on splitting the improvements into two: The CSO/SSO problem and, then, plant improvements.

1) The City must address the CSO's and SSO's. This has held true now for several years no matter what the plant improvements look like. (A green infrastructure program can help with this problem, but, without a thorough study, we don't know by how much)

2) Rates will go up to pay for these improvements. We can consider this "phase one" of the Administration's rate increase: to pay for plant operations, and the CSO/SSO program and, additional planning for future improvements.

Plant Improvements:

We have seen that in less than 1 month, improvements to the plant itself has taken a radical (and better) turn. Those plant improvements have risen in cost by about 45 million dollars.

A green infrastructure plan must be developed, evaluated and incorporated into plant improvements.

As I wrote in the last post, green infrastructure can be far less expensive than using grey infrastructure alone.

Thorough "green" planing is the key here. Perhaps millions and millions of dollars of your money hangs in the balance.