From the BCCT:
Water, sewer rates going up
By: DANNY ADLER
Bucks County Courier Times
Water and sewer rates are going up for many Morrisville Municipal Authority customers - some as much as 11 percent - and a $2 per quarter metering charge is being tacked onto bills.
But Executive Director John Warenda said while the cost for the average customer is going up, customers who use the least amount of water and sewer services will see a slight reduction. That's because the quarterly water and sewer rate for the first 5,000 gallons was reduced by $2 for water and more than $1 for sewer for those small-use customers.
Commercial bulk users will see their fees go up to as high as 11 percent for water and 7 percent for sewer costs.
A typical residential customer who uses 13,500 gallons per quarter for water and sewer will pay about $142. That same bill would have cost $139 last year. A family of four using 17,500 gallons per quarter will pay about $180, when they would have paid $176 in 2009.
Officials said the increased rates were built into this year's $6 million-plus budget to compensate for increases in overall operating costs - chemicals are 40 percent more expensive, health insurance costs are up 12 percent and maintenance costs continue to rise, he said.
Salaries for the authority's 30 employees also are up 3 percent. The authority will pay $1.86 million in salaries this year, compared to the $1.81 million paid out last year. That works out to an average income of $62,000 a year. Authority employees have budgeted $185,000 for plant overtime this year compared to $168,000 last year.
With roughly 3,900 residential and 300 commercial customers in Morrisville and parts of Falls and Lower Makefield, the authority will use revenue from its new $2 metering fee - an estimated $33,600 this year - to fund upkeep on water mains, street valves, hydrants, laterals and other related infrastructure, according to officials. Parts of the municipal authority's system are more than 100 years old.
The authority is budgeted to generate $182,000 in revenue in 2010 by continuing its treatment of leachate - a liquid waste product created by rainfall that passes through trash and is collected at the bottom of Waste Management's landfills in Lower Bucks County.
The municipal authority treats 70,000 gallons of the trash-tainted water from Falls' GROWS landfill and the Tullytown landfill daily.
Even with the new rates, the authority will evaluate its charges and rate structure during the course of the next year.
"It is important to try to maintain an equitable balance between large bulk users, who pay the lowest rate for the greatest consumption, and non-commercial residential consumers, who pay much smaller bills, but at much higher rates," Warenda said.
