Water And Sewer Agency Increases

Usage Rate By 5 Percent 

By Andrew Gorosko

The Water and Sewer Authority (WSA) has increased the sewer usage rate for customers on the central sewer system and the Hawleyville sewer system, hiking the fee by slightly more than five percent.

WSA members unanimously approved the rate increase at a November 10 session, following a public hearing.

The sewer user rate hike increases the amount that the town charges sewer users from $5.70 to $5.99 per 1,000 gallons of wastewater sent down drains. The rate hike takes effect January 1, 2006. Sewer users are billed quarterly.

When the central sewer system began operation in September 1997, the sewer usage rate was $4.40 per 1,000 gallons of water used.

After January 1, 2006, sewer customers will be paying a sewer usage rate than is more than 36 percent higher than the original rate levied in 1997.

No members of the public attended the WSA’s November 10 public hearing at which the proposed rate hike was aired, according to WSA records. The WSA, however, had received a letter from John and Sherrie Bermingham of 42 Main Street opposing the rate increase.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley said this week the sewer usage rate hike was required by the increasing operating costs at the town’s Commerce Road sewage treatment plant, including costs for electricity and natural gas. The rate hike also reflects equipment depreciation expenses, he said.

The current cost to connect a residential property to the sewer system is $11,944, which is paid to the WSA as a lump sum.

When the sewer system started operation in 1997, the residential connection fee was $9,900. Also, that connection fee was to be paid to the town in increments at a two percent interest rate across a 20-year period.

In January 2004, the WSA increased the sewer usage rate by approximately seven percent, hiking it from $5.33 to $5.70 per 1,000 gallons of wastewater.

In September 2002, sewer usage rates increased by seven percent, rising from $4.98 to $5.33 per 1,000 gallons of wastewater discharged into the sewer system.

In June 2001, the WSA raised the sewer usage rate by seven percent, increasing it from $4.65 to $4.98 per 1,000 gallons of wastewater.

Sewer bills vary, depending upon the number of people in a household, and how much water they use and then send down their drains. A larger family uses more water, discharges more wastewater into the sewer system, and thus has a higher quarterly sewer-use bill. A family of six might use twice as much water as a family of three.

The central sewer system serves the Borough, Taunton Lake North, Sandy Hook Center, Nunnawauk Meadows, Fairfield Hills, Garner Correctional Institution, and several public schools. The town built the $34 million central sewer system to correct groundwater pollution problems caused by numerous failing septic systems. The central sewer system has more than 1,000 customers.

The town operates a second, much smaller sewer system in Hawleyville, which sends wastewater to the Danbury sewage plant for treatment. That sewer system was built to stimulate the economic development of Hawleyville. That system serves Liberty at Newtown, which is an age-restricted condominium complex, and The Homesteads at Newtown, an assisted living complex.