Mayor Jason Titus said the current minimum water/sewer bill of $50 per month would increase to $228 per month, if the rate hike goes through.
Titus said the hike is due to storm and ground water that enters the sewer system through leaky or cracked pipes, manholes, down spouts, sump pumps or improperly connected storm drains.
Reedsville doesn’t have a sewage treatment plant. It pays Masontown a bulk rate charge for sewage treatment. But Masontown said it is not being paid for treating the storm water. Masontown wants to be paid based on the actual gallons that come through the Reedsville line to the sewer plant.
Masontown Mayor Roxie Turner said when the first treatment plant was set up 17 years ago there was an agreement that Reedsville would pay Masontown the amount read on customers’ water meters. She said the fee has not increased in 17 years.
The problem is the storm water does not go through the meter.
According to Masontown’s filing with the State Public Service Commission (PSC), data from the flow meter for the period July 1, 2016, through June 30, 2017, shows that Reedsville actually sent 52,152,370 gallons to the sewage treatment plant, while the total gallons billed Reedsville for this same period of time were 15,884,800.
It cost Masontown $328,887.55 to treat the flow, while Reedsville paid $102,260.07 to Masontown, according to the filing.
Turner said the price is not actually a raise. She said Reedsville is currently paying $6.51 per 1,000 gallons and if the PSC approves the change, it will be paying $6.31 per 1,000 gallons.
“It will cost more because they are putting more … through the system,” she said.
Reedsville Council expressed concerns about the impact of the raise.
“If this raise goes through realtors are going to be telling people not to buy homes here or start businesses. There won’t be a town,” councilwoman Britney Titus said
