Columbus City Utilities is preparing to start a rate study of its sewer utility and looking to potentially raise the sewer rate in 2021 for city customers.
The current rate for 4,000 gallons a month usage is $31.10.
Utilities Executive Director Scott Dompke said that the rate study will be completed by the Baker Tilly consulting firm, which also completed a cost of service study for the city’s water utility. The city’s request for a water rate increase is currently being reviewed by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and, if approved, could take effect in August 2021.
However, Dompke said that the city’s sewer utility is not regulated by the IURC. As a result, sewer rate increase would not need to go through the commission’s lengthy approval process. Instead, it would need to be approved by the utilities board and Columbus City Council, with the latter requiring two readings before final approval.
“It’s not nearly as formal as the water rate case, because the regulatory commission is not involved, but we will effectively do the same kinds of analyses as were done,” Dompke said.
He said that the sewer rate study will include examination of the amount of money spent on maintaining lift stations, paying salaries and wages, cleaning sewers, replacing parts at the wastewater treatment plant, responding to customer calls and fixing sewer blockages.
“They look at all of the profiles of the customers, how many gallons we treat, what kind of services we provide, how much does it cost us to provide that service,” he added.
Dompke said that Columbus City Utilities had originally hoped for the new sewer rate to become effective in 2020, but that the virus pushed the rate case back.
He added that he hopes to begin the rate study, which will take several months, before the end of 2020 and have a new rate approved in 2021.
“The longer you wait, the more things cost, as we’ve been talking about on the water side. Delays in construction mean higher costs,” Dompke said.
He was unable to give an exact estimate for when the proposed rate would be presented and when it might become effective. However, he did say that the utilities department may chose to break the increase into phases, similar to the proposed three-phase increase for the water utility.
Dompke said that if the rate increase is approved, it would be Columbus’s first sewage rate increase in approximately 10 years. He said the main drivers for the rate case are the depreciation of equipment and the need for “capital improvements.”
Dompke said that there are two main projects that would receive funding from the rate increase. One is the estimated $14 million Westside interceptor project, which Dompke described as a “large diameter … 42-inch sewer line in between State Road 11 and I-65 from State Road 46 South.”
The other project is about $3.5 million in sewer improvements for an area of customers who were previously served by the Eastern Bartholomew Regional Sewer District and are now served by Columbus City Utilities.
Dompke said that both endeavors will add jobs in the city of Columbus.
“The sewer utility contributes to local economic development,” he said. “… We have to do our part to make sure that the utilities are being properly operated, maintained, repaired and replaced.”
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Comparisons with other Indiana communities regarding current sewage rates based on 4,000 gallons a month usage (with the exception of Columbus’s rate, which is up-to-date, the following numbers were reported by the Republic in November of 2019):
- Edinburgh – $15.50
- Carmel – $26.89
- Columbus (present) – $31.10
- Greensburg – $35.96
- Greenwood – $36.40
- Bloomington – $38.99
- Indianapolis (Citizens) – $46.20
- Jeffersonville – $53.57
- Evansville – $65.64
- Scottsburg – $74.55
Dompke said part of the rate study will include gathering information on current rates from other communities.
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