Water rates in the Village of Oxford could be increased anywhere from 11 to 22 percent depending on which option council chooses to deal with the municipality’s aging treatment plant on S. Glaspie St.
Before officials take any definitive action, they’re conducting a public hearing on Tuesday, April 22 at 6:30 p.m. to garner input from the village’s approximately 1,200 water customers who will ultimately foot the bill.
‘I think it’s a big investment of taxpayer monies and it’s our duty to look at every option that’s possible,? said Councilman Tom Benner.
Options range from $80,000 or more to replace the softener media and underdrains all the way up to $2.7 million to replace/upgrade all of the plant’s existing equipment and add 2,220 square feet of space for future expansion.
Built in 1978, the village’s treatment plant, located next to Scripter Park, requires improvements due to age, deteriorating equipment and its limited capacity to pump from the three municipal wells.
According to village President Chris Bishop, the plant has got approximately five more years before its major components, such as the iron filters, will all need to be replaced.
The most pressing issue right now is the need to replace the 30-year-old media inside the softener tanks and repair/replace the tanks? underdrains, which are believed to be in a weakened condition.
But village officials expressed concern over the possibility of spending $80,000 or more on this when it basically amounts to a short-term fix.
‘This could be an $80,000 Band-Aid for six months or a year,? Bishop said. ‘Or it could be something that we would use for five years until we approached the (need for a) new plant again.?
Limited capacity is another issue. Right now, the village has three wells ? two capable of pumping 1,200 gallons per minute (GPM) and one with a capacity of 2,600 GPM.
However, the most water the plant can treat is between 780 and 800 GPM, according to Water Plant Superintendent Jim Smith.
‘The reservoir and the softeners are sort of undersized to pump anything more than that,? Smith explained. ‘Right now, I can’t even run two wells at one time. If I run more than one well, (the water) goes up through our aerator and overflows the (plant’s) reservoir.?
‘With the three wells we have, if they updated the plant and expanded a little bit, there’s no reason they couldn’t double their output to the residents,? he noted. ‘We ought to be able to utilize the wells we have.?
During the summer months, Smith said, ‘there’s times the plant runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week? to generate its maximum of between 1.123 million and 1.152 million gallons per day (MGD).
‘A lot of days during the summer we’re at 100 percent capacity ? we couldn’t pump anymore if we wanted to,? he said. ‘But we’ve never had any water restrictions or anything. A lot of the communities around us have.?
During the winter, the plant treats about 560,000 MGD.
The maximum capacity the plant’s able to treat doesn’t include the minimum of 300,000-325,000 that’s always kept in the elevated storage tower, which can hold up to 500,000 gallons.
Officials said now might be a good time to upgrade and expand the entire treatment plant because it’s ‘cheap? to borrow money (i.e. interest rates for issuing bonds would be 2-4 percent) and the construction industry’s slow, meaning bids would be competitive.
But first council wants to present the various options to the public and hear what water customers have to say.
Right now, the options are as follows:
n Replace softener media and underdrains for $80,000 or more, depending the condition of the underdrains. This would add a life expectancy of five years or less depending on the condition of the softeners.
n Replace softeners for an estimated $300,000.
n Replace softeners with larger ones, upgrade some other existing equipment and add 550-700 square feet to the plant for future growth ? $1.6 million. This option would increase the plant’s ability to treat water from the current 1.1 MGD to 1.693 MGD (or 1,176 GPM).
n Replace all existing equipment with larger sizes and additional pieces. Add 2,200 square feet to the plant for future expansion. Total cost: $2.7 million. This option would increase the plant’s ability to treat water from the current 1.1 MGD to 2.212 MGD (or 1,536 GPM). The new, larger plant could be easily expanded to treat up to 4.4 MGD with this option.
Financing the latter two options would require water rate increases ranging from 11 to 22 percent depending on what’s chosen by council.
Currently, the village charges every water customer a base charge of $17.20 regardless of whether or not any water is used. The municipality then charges $3.25 for every 1,000 gallons used above the first 2,000 gallons which are considered ‘free.?
Bishop noted that water rates will have to be increased at some point regardless of the need to upgrade the treatment plant.
‘The last three years the water plant has been operating in the red (by about $40,000 or so a year),? he said at last week’s council meeting. ‘Our rates aren’t keeping pace with our expenses because we haven’t had a water rate increase since 2000.?
‘Eventually, in the next couple years, we have to do something because we can’t continue to lose $40,000 a year on this,? Bishop noted.