REEDSVILLE — A town meeting to discuss the possible sewer rate hike brought out about 100 people Tuesday evening.
Reedsville Council members, town attorney Mark Gaydos and town accountant Phillip Nuce were on hand to answer questions.
The rate hike was proposed due to a raise in the amount of inflow and infiltration — storm or ground water — that enters the sewer system through leaky or cracked pipes, manholes or down spouts, sump pumps or improperly connected storm drains.
Masontown, which treats Reedsville’s sewage, said it can no longer charge a flat fee because of all the storm water. It wants to be paid based on the actual number of gallons of water that enter the plant from Reedsville. The fee has not increased in 17 years, according to Masontown.
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, showed that Reedsville actually sent 52,152,370 gallons to the sewage treatment plant, while the total gallons billed Reedsville for that period were 15,884,800.
Reedsville Mayor Jason Titus said a 1,000-foot terra cotta line in Arthurdale is causing a major part of the problem. He said the town is currently smoke testing, using cameras and flow meters to find problem areas. He said repairing the Arthurdale line will decrease the infiltration by almost 50 percent.
A comment from the audience about the Arthurdale project that replaced the old sewer lines about four years ago running out of money changed the tone of the meeting.
Gaydos said the Arthurdale extension was supposed to be a complete project.
“This is the first I heard they ran out of money,” he said. “That is an eye-opening experience. We are going to have to look at this to see if there was a change order.”
“In the contract (Arthurdale) was supposed to get all new lines. That wasn’t the case,” Titus said. “Thrasher [Engineering] was in charge of that project. They are going back through their papers looking for a change order on why it was missed.” He said Stonegate Construction did the work.
Titus said the town is working to correct as many problems as possible.
“If we can fix this before the final meeting with the PSC, we can ask them to take another look at the numbers before the possible September increase,” Titus said.
Gaydos said he filed a protest with the PSC against the proposed rate hike on behalf of Reedsville.
“It’s discrimination because their customers are not facing any increase. By picking one customer that does not have a vote on their council is a discriminatory practice,” he said.
Titus said the PSC should reply by June 4. He said the town would have 10 days to respond.
“Unfortunately there will have to be some sort of increase,” Titus said. “If we take the I&I down it should take our costs down.” He said he has heard several real estate agents were telling people not to buy homes in Reedsville, Masontown or Arthurdale.
At an earlier interview, Masontown Mayor Roxie Turner said since the addition of Arthurdale to the Reedsville system the storm water has gone up.
“Our new plant is a dedicated plant for Reedsville and Masontown. Each town has it’s own sewage transportation line. We are paying three fourths of all the water that goes through the system and we can’t keep that up. Our new plant is costing us $37,000 a month.”
Turner said the price increase is not actually a raise. She said Reedsville is currently paying $6.51 per 1,000 gallons and if the PSC approves the change they will be paying $6.31 per 1,000 gallons.
“It will cost Reedsville more because they are putting more I&I through the system,” she said. “When they filed against us with the Public Service Commission they never mentioned the I&I. They mentioned discrimination because we are not raising the price to our customers,” Turner said,
To see all of the papers that have been filed with the PSC by Masontown and Reedsville go to www.PSC.state.WV.gov.
