MARK CRESSOTTI
WESTFIELD – The Water Commission recently sent a recommendation to Mayor Daniel M. Knapik and the City Council to increase the sewer fee by 9 percent, an increase needed to generate sufficient operational revenue at the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
The sewer rates are set by the City Council.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti and Water Resource Superintendent Dave Billips made the case to the commission last night that the proposed increase is insufficient to maintain existing sewer infrastructure and to finance major sewer expansion projects.
Currently at 16 existing pump stations, with two new pump houses proposed to expand sewer service to areas of Montgomery Road in Ward 1 and to the Plantation Circle, Jessie Lane, Deborah Lane neighborhood in Ward 5.
“They are pretty expensive pieces of the system that are more likely to fail,” Cressotti said. “Four or five months ago you voted to recommend to the City Council a sewer rate adjustment of about 9 percent in response to an operational expense shortage.
“But you will need $7.5 million to upgrade the city’s pump stations,” Cressotti said. “And we’ve had numerous discussions with members of the City Council about extending the sewer system, which historically we’ve done with the I&I (Inflow and Infiltration) reserve fund, but we have not kept up with that expansion.
“We have a problem (financing) infrastructure improvements and sewer expansion in general,” Cressotti said. “Some neighborhoods can’t wait 15 or 20 years, so do we try to advance (the schedule) for sewer expansion efforts.”
Cressotti estimated the cost of major sewer expansion projects at about $2 million each, with projects pending in all six city wards. The city would have to bond for major sewer expansion projects and the sewer fees, paid by residents currently connected to the sanitary sewer system, will need to generate sufficient revenue to pay for those bonds.
“My recommendation to you is that you send the City Council a request to increase the sewer fee 3 to 5 percent over the next five to 10 years,” Cressotti said.
Billips said a 5 percent rate increase provides an additional $200,000 in revenue a year to the department.
“Our water and sewer rates, as I’ve been saying for years, are grievously low, at the bottom of rate structures in the region,” Billips said. “We just had two condemned pump stations that we have to repair at a cost of $1 million each.”
The state Department of Environmental Protection conducts annual inspections of the city’s pump stations. The DEP notified the city on April 7 that the Pochassic Street and the Ponders Hollow pump station both contain “unsafe” pressure vessels that need to be replaced with pressure tanks which comply with current state law and code requirements.
“The problem is that the tanks were installed and the stations built around them,” Billips said. “We don’t have too much time to bring them into compliance.”
Commission Chairman Ron Cole said that the board needs justification of a substantial rate increase before it can make any recommendation to the City Council.
“There needs to be some level of prioritization, a list of projects we’re looking to do and the cost of bonding for that work,” Cole said. “I’m not comfortable enough to give you blank authority. From my perspective we have to have something to go to the City Council, projects and cost figures.
“We need a long-term perspective on how we manage rates,” Cole said. “This is the work we need to do. We can go to the City Council when we have a defensible position, a punch list of what has to be done and how to finance that.”
Billips suggested retaining Tighe & Bond to perform an assessment of the infrastructure improvements and sewer system expansion, a study which will help the commission identify priority projects.
“We have a proposal from Tighe & Bond to do the same thing for the sewers that they did for the water,” Billips said.
Cole said the commission would support that type of study which will provide a scope and cost of work and the sewer rates needed to support those improvements.
