Jan 28, 2008
Costly Mandated Infrastructure Upgrades Mean Major Sewer Fee Increases
A ‘Tough Pill to Swallow’ – P.D. Adkins
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – After the water main break on Sixth Avenue forced boil water advisories last week, smaller breaks have occurred at 21st Street, Fifth Avenue and 27th Street, and in locations such as near the Go Mart on Washington Avenue in West Huntington. Do these breaks have a relationship with the aging sanitary and storm water system which the city must by federal and state law upgrade?
Councilmember P.D. Adkins gave the short answer --- no, the broken lines belong to American Water. However, the city’s aging infrastructure means a large fee increase is coming to comply with environmental regulations.
“It’s come time to pay the piper. We need $700,000,000 to bring our infrastructure up to date,” Adkins said following the Friday work session, referring to the city’s antiquated sewer system. “In May we will be taking the first step in the EPA’s unfortunately unfunded mandate. We have dodged [this] for fourteen years and we are under a lot of pressure from the EPA and [state] Division of Environmental Protection to start complying.”
Unfortunately, the unfunded mandated upgrades will “be passed on the customers of the Huntington Sanitary Board.” In fact, Sanitary Board officials have told Adkins that the city’s lack of improvements over the last 20 or 30 years place us low on the “priority list when it comes to assistance.”
Casting the expenditures in a broad positive perspective, Adkins said, “Hopefully, this will be the first step in the rehabbing of our infrastructure. We are going to have to have the infrastructure in here to bring in new business [so] we are going to have to go after federal dollars. It’s going to be an investment in the future.”
Adkins will sponsor the mandated sanitary fee increases, but he stressed, “I think it would be in the interest of the citizens of Huntington for future council’s to hold spending levels down and try not to increase other fees. It’s my view that costs [we are incurring] are driving people out of the city. [Since] we have mandated fee increases, hopefully, they can be offset by keeping the municipal, user and refuse fees stabilized for the next four or five years.”
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Costly Mandated Infrastructure Upgrades Mean Major Sewer Fee Increases
A ‘Tough Pill to Swallow’ – P.D. Adkins
By Tony Rutherford
Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – After the water main break on Sixth Avenue forced boil water advisories last week, smaller breaks have occurred at 21st Street, Fifth Avenue and 27th Street, and in locations such as near the Go Mart on Washington Avenue in West Huntington. Do these breaks have a relationship with the aging sanitary and storm water system which the city must by federal and state law upgrade?
Councilmember P.D. Adkins gave the short answer --- no, the broken lines belong to American Water. However, the city’s aging infrastructure means a large fee increase is coming to comply with environmental regulations.
“It’s come time to pay the piper. We need $700,000,000 to bring our infrastructure up to date,” Adkins said following the Friday work session, referring to the city’s antiquated sewer system. “In May we will be taking the first step in the EPA’s unfortunately unfunded mandate. We have dodged [this] for fourteen years and we are under a lot of pressure from the EPA and [state] Division of Environmental Protection to start complying.”
Unfortunately, the unfunded mandated upgrades will “be passed on the customers of the Huntington Sanitary Board.” In fact, Sanitary Board officials have told Adkins that the city’s lack of improvements over the last 20 or 30 years place us low on the “priority list when it comes to assistance.”
Casting the expenditures in a broad positive perspective, Adkins said, “Hopefully, this will be the first step in the rehabbing of our infrastructure. We are going to have to have the infrastructure in here to bring in new business [so] we are going to have to go after federal dollars. It’s going to be an investment in the future.”
Adkins will sponsor the mandated sanitary fee increases, but he stressed, “I think it would be in the interest of the citizens of Huntington for future council’s to hold spending levels down and try not to increase other fees. It’s my view that costs [we are incurring] are driving people out of the city. [Since] we have mandated fee increases, hopefully, they can be offset by keeping the municipal, user and refuse fees stabilized for the next four or five years.”
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