Sewer enabling legislation one step forward and two back

Jane Kenney Austin
Posted 4/16/15

By JANE KENNEY AUSTIN

On Tuesday, April 7, changes needed to extend much needed, and in some cases desperately needed, sewer lines were held hostage to satisfy the demands of a small group of …

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Sewer enabling legislation one step forward and two back

Posted

By JANE KENNEY AUSTIN

On Tuesday, April 7, changes needed to extend much needed, and in some cases desperately needed, sewer lines were held hostage to satisfy the demands of a small group of Warwick cesspool owners. The demand? Eliminate the ability of the Warwick Sewer Authority (WSA) to establish a connect-capable fee. 

In a presentation to the City Council’s Sewer Review Commission a year and a half ago, the WSA rate consultant characterized assessments, annual charges, and connect capable fees as the three legs of the stool needed to support a financially sound sewer system. A connect capable fee is intended “to recover an equitable portion of the principal for any bonds or notes issued for sewerage works and renewal and replacement funding” from property owners not connected to the sewer system but capable of doing so. Even property owners who are not tied in benefit from having a wastewater treatment system capable of supporting the schools, hospitals, businesses and other major institutions in the community. They enjoy the cleaner water and healthier Bay that results when their neighbors tie in. Finally, a connect-capable fee provides an incentive for property owners to tie in. That third leg has been wobbly in Warwick for a long time.

The current WSA statute has long given the WSA the capacity to set a connect-capable fee with the consent of the Mayor and City Council. Yet Warwick’s connect capable fee remains zero.   As a result, WSA’s regular users pay higher annual charges and the City has the lowest sewer tie-in rate in the state. The Council’s continuing failure to support even the gradual phase-in of a connect capable fee is bad enough, but kicking that leg out altogether and foreclosing the possibility for future councils, mayors, and sewer authorities is dangerous and short-sighted. 

It is ironic that a call for a fiscal note was used to block the package of changes intended to start a public process for determining fair and equitable assessments for new sewer construction; but a fiscal note was not deemed necessary if the same package included a surprise, late night elimination of connect capable language.

Taking out the connect capable language could have lots of unanticipated consequences, including putting at risk Warwick’s eligibility for federally supported sewer construction financing from the RI Clean Water Finance Agency. Past assents for sewer construction from CRMC as well as the grant financing for earlier Governor Francis Farms sewer construction were conditioned on shoring up Warwick’s weak tie-in program and the possibility of a connect capable fee. DEM extended the time available for Warwick residents to comply with the State’s cesspool phase–out requirements, on the good faith assumption that Warwick was moving forward with sewer construction and addressing its low tie in rate.

In the interest of those Warwick residents waiting for sewer construction, Councilman Ladouceur and Gallucci (members of the Commission) may have had little choice but to acquiesce to the changes demanded on Tuesday evening. However, the “sausage-making” described in the April 9 Beacon editorial was a disservice to Warwick residents who need or depend on sewers in favor of a small, vocal group of cesspool owners.   

This group of cesspool owners is not representative of most of Warwick’s cesspool owners. These are the cesspool owners who have sewer lines in front of their homes and won’t use them. These cesspool owners claim that pumping household waste into a hole in the ground in the backyard has no impact on anyone or anything, and believe that the assessment they paid (whether it was $7.49, $15, $30, $44, $52 or $82 per foot) fulfills any responsibility they bear for the support of Warwick’s wastewater treatment system.

Nevertheless, at the behest of this small group, a package of changes developed over two years by the commission, in cooperation with the WSA and the Mayor’s office, was held hostage  - and then changed by the council without input from the commission, the WSA, the Mayor’s office, and the people who will now shoulder even higher rates, WSA’s current rate payers.

Acting on recommendations made by the Warwick Sewer Review Commission over the last two years, the Warwick City Council has resolved a long-standing impasse on plant upgrades, funded the construction of a levee to protect the city’s largest capital asset, and approved revenue bonds to resume long-stalled construction of sewer lines in the city. If the council had approved the package of enabling changes recommended by the commission at Tuesday’s meeting, it would have been another positive step. Instead, late Tuesday night, the council took one step forward and two steps back.

A Warwick resident, Austin served on the Warwick Sewer Review Commission from July 2013 to February 2014 as a representative of Save The Bay.

Comments

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  • Ken B

    Stormwater runoff and combined sewage overflows (CSO's) are the main causes of polution in Greenwich Bay and Narragansett Bay. To solve this problem, storm drain and catch basin systems should be built along the bay shoreline areas to collect the stormwater runoff. Pipeline systems would be built to channel the stormwater runoff to large, near surface storage tanks where it will be stored until it is sent for treatment during dry weather. The sewage treatment plant would be connected to the new storage tanks to store CSO's. These storage tanks would be connected to Constructed Wetland Systems where the pollutants would be naturally removed by the action of plant life in the system. Storm Drain and catch basin systems do not have to be connected to homes and businesses. Systems like this could be built over a period of 10 years on a pay as you go basis and save half of the construction costs. Bonding fees and interest fees double the cost of these mandated sewer systems.

    Friday, April 17, 2015 Report this

  • connor

    This is horrible, the City Council should be ashamed of themselves and all who voted for taking the Connect Capable fee out should step down. Why doesn't other cities and towns have this issue with sewers? because they have Council Members that are not self serving and pathetic as ours. They should learn how to help run a city by attending other city and town meetings throughout R.I. that way they may learn how to have some insight and a sense of what is right for all. Sadly you cant teach CONNON SENSE....

    Monday, April 20, 2015 Report this

  • StaciaClueless

    Stacia how many damn usernames have you created on this website? Aren't you embarrassed for yourself yet or are you truly lacking self awareness that much?

    Monday, April 20, 2015 Report this