Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Sacramento Bee: Sacramento city seeks water, sewer rate increases

Sacramento city officials seek water, sewer rate increase

Published: Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
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Faced with an aging sewer and storm drainage system, Sacramento city officials are recommending an increase in the rates that residents pay for water and sewer service.
A utility rate analyst hired by the city recommended at Tuesday night's City Council meeting that water rates be raised an average of $3.44 a month and wastewater rates by $2.36 a month starting in July 2012. Those increases would lead to an estimated 6 percent jump in total utility bills.

The analyst also recommended that 6 percent increases be applied in 2013 and 2014. City water and wastewater rates did not increase this year and have remained steady two out of the last four years.

Rate increases will first be considered by the city's Utility Rate Advisory Commission, which is expected to take up the issue by the end of the year. The commission's recommendation will then be passed along to the City Council early next year.

"It's vital that we continue to address this," said Councilman Rob Fong, whose Land Park, downtown and midtown district has some of the oldest pipes in the city.

Utilities officials said the increases are necessary to help fund a long-term replacement program of the sewer system. The replacement cost of the city's elaborate network of pipes is estimated at $2.4 billion.

While city utilities officials are not suggesting replacing the network immediately, they do want to speed up the replacement schedule.

The city currently sets aside $3.7 million a year for pipe replacement and upgrades – enough to pay for a replacement of the system every 650 years. Utilities officials eventually want to get on a 100-year replacement schedule, a timeframe that would require an annual investment of $26 million.

"The undeniable fact is our system is old," said Dave Brent, the interim director of the city's Department of Utilities.

Much of the attention is on the combined system of sewer and storm drainage pipes that runs beneath neighborhoods in the city's core, older areas such as downtown, midtown, Land Park and Curtis Park.

Of the roughly 250 miles of combined pipes in that network, 27 percent is at least 100 years old. Two-thirds of the system was built before World War II.

Another 566 miles of pipe makes up a separate system in which storm drainage and sewer waste run through different pipes.

It's a relatively younger system, but 44 miles of the network is at least 100 years old, much of it in North Sacramento and Del Paso Heights.

If the city does not upgrade its system, it risks facing sanctions from environmental agencies that could include a moratorium on new development, utilities officials said.

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