Breaking News
County sewer rates to skyrocket
By Tim Hull
Special to the Green Valley News
Green Valley residents will pay nearly $9 more per month in sewer costs by 2010, according to a new fee structure approved by the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
On a 3-2 party-line vote last week, the board raised the county’s sewer service fee by $1.50 (from $6.82 to $8.32) and increased the volume rate by 12.75 percent.
An average monthly bill — about $20.25 — will increase by $3.21, county officials said. An additional increase set for July will add another $1.93 to that bill, bringing it up to $25.39. Then, a further jump in January 2010 of $3.68 will put the average Green Valley bill at $29.07 monthly.
The primary reason for the increase is to bring the Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department into compliance with new federal and state mandates to keep nitrogen and ammonia out of the aquifer, said Jeff Nichols, the department’s deputy director.
It’s going to cost the department an estimated $720 million to meet federal and state effluent requirements, according to its fiscal year 2008-09 budget.
By contrast, the department’s entire operations and maintenance expenses for the current fiscal year are about $79.8 million, an increase of nearly 4 percent over the prior year.
Over the next 10 years, the department estimates it will have to spend about $1.03 billion to stay compliant with effluent standards and keep up with new customers.
“Let’s say we don’t add one more person, and we don’t service one more gallon of sewage; we are still required to do this,” Nichols said. “It’s a mandate with no funding.”
Pima County’s sewage department is the last major utility in the state that discharges effluent into what the Environmental Protection Agency considers to be a navigable stream (the Santa Cruz River) without cleaning it of excess nitrogen first, Nichols said.
High levels of nitrogen in drinking water can be harmful to children and unborn babies, according to EPA studies; however, nobody actually drinks the groundwater near the Roger Road and Ina Road Wastewater facilities, where the problem is most acute.
Recently, Pima County officials, including PCRWRD director Michael Gritzuk, met with Arizona Department of Environmental Quality regulators in an effort to put off compliance for five years, citing the current lethargic economic conditions, but to no avail.
“ADEQ didn’t understand our concerns,” Nichols said, “because we are on the low side of the statewide average for service fees.”
Nichols said a customer in Lake Havasu City pays about $50 to $60 per month.
“Rates have been set through politics instead of good business practices,” Nichols said, explaining why sewer fees in Tucson have remained low compared to the rest of the state. “You can buy a brand new car and never change the oil and transmission fluid, and you will probably get away with it for while, but you are eventually going to have to replace the car.”
Green Valley residents will pay nearly $9 more per month in sewer costs by 2010, according to a new fee structure approved by the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
On a 3-2 party-line vote last week, the board raised the county’s sewer service fee by $1.50 (from $6.82 to $8.32) and increased the volume rate by 12.75 percent.
An average monthly bill — about $20.25 — will increase by $3.21, county officials said. An additional increase set for July will add another $1.93 to that bill, bringing it up to $25.39. Then, a further jump in January 2010 of $3.68 will put the average Green Valley bill at $29.07 monthly.
The primary reason for the increase is to bring the Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department into compliance with new federal and state mandates to keep nitrogen and ammonia out of the aquifer, said Jeff Nichols, the department’s deputy director.
It’s going to cost the department an estimated $720 million to meet federal and state effluent requirements, according to its fiscal year 2008-09 budget.
By contrast, the department’s entire operations and maintenance expenses for the current fiscal year are about $79.8 million, an increase of nearly 4 percent over the prior year.
Over the next 10 years, the department estimates it will have to spend about $1.03 billion to stay compliant with effluent standards and keep up with new customers.
“Let’s say we don’t add one more person, and we don’t service one more gallon of sewage; we are still required to do this,” Nichols said. “It’s a mandate with no funding.”
Pima County’s sewage department is the last major utility in the state that discharges effluent into what the Environmental Protection Agency considers to be a navigable stream (the Santa Cruz River) without cleaning it of excess nitrogen first, Nichols said.
High levels of nitrogen in drinking water can be harmful to children and unborn babies, according to EPA studies; however, nobody actually drinks the groundwater near the Roger Road and Ina Road Wastewater facilities, where the problem is most acute.
Recently, Pima County officials, including PCRWRD director Michael Gritzuk, met with Arizona Department of Environmental Quality regulators in an effort to put off compliance for five years, citing the current lethargic economic conditions, but to no avail.
“ADEQ didn’t understand our concerns,” Nichols said, “because we are on the low side of the statewide average for service fees.”
Nichols said a customer in Lake Havasu City pays about $50 to $60 per month.
“Rates have been set through politics instead of good business practices,” Nichols said, explaining why sewer fees in Tucson have remained low compared to the rest of the state. “You can buy a brand new car and never change the oil and transmission fluid, and you will probably get away with it for while, but you are eventually going to have to replace the car.”
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