The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG – Crumbling terracotta sewer lines infiltrated by tree roots, brittle and cracking concrete asbestos water pipes, and leaks in waterhsed spring lines, are indicators that the city’s water and sewer system is showing its age. City Manager Randy Hinchliffe suggested that the council consider a revision to the city’s utility fees in order to begin preparing for “some pretty substantial water system needs.”

Hinchliffe said the recent water line repair under the Touchet River Bridge as well as repairs to several leaks in the spring lines at the city’s watershed caused the city to spend over $20,000 in unanticipated repairs this year. He said there is another unfixed leak under the road at the watershed, but repairs will likely be deferred until the money and manpower to fix it are available.

Hinchliffe said thousands of feet of crumbling terracotta sewer line, running throughout the city, needs to be either replaced or relined. The city is working through a 20-item water system priority list developed by Anderson-Perry engineers and has currently completed the first four items.

Hinchliffe also told the council that new state regulations give the city two years to formulate a plan on how they intend to remove all lead from the water system. They will then have 15 years to remove the lead.

“The problem with that is that the majority of the lead is in the water meters, themselves,” Hinchliffe said. He said the city has approximately 600 meters which would need to be replaced with radio reads. He said the city is looking at three different options but all cost “in the realm of $275,000.”

Hinchliffe said the city’s current revenue structure is not sufficient to meet the city’s needs and said that a utility rate increase is inevitable in order to put aside funds for capital improvements and repairs. “It’s just a matter of how the city wants to structure the increase,” he said.

Currently, average users pay a base rate of $33.90 for water which includes 1,000 cubic feet of water. Users are then charged $.80 per 100 cf of water used over the 1,000 cf base. Users pay a flat rate of $42.75 for sewer.

Hinchliffe suggesting “charging users for only the water they use” by doing away with the base rate water allotment and simply charging $.80 per 100 cf. He said the change would probably amount to an $8.00/month increase for most users. He said that the average user uses about 2,000 cf of water each month and the proposed change would affect “middle users.”

Hinchliffe said Waitsburg’s base water/sewer rate of $76.65 is well below that of Walla Walla at $105.20, College Place at $89.90, and Dayton at $85.29. He said all three of those cities are also facing infrastructure issues that will cause them to seek future rate increases as well.

The council expressed concern about how the proposed change could affect low water users who are on a fixed budget.

Council member KC Kuykendall agreed with the need to raise rates and asked Hinchliffe to return with a user consumption profile to help the council decide how to structure the increase. He said he felt it might be easier and more beneficial to just increase the bill by a set percentage rather than eliminating the base allotment.

Discussion will continue at the Nov. 16 city council meeting.