Ho! Ho! Ho! Water bills are going up in Oxford Township. Merry Christmas!
Officials Dec. 14 voted 6-1 to begin assessing all current and future township water system users a $128 per year capital improvement charge beginning Jan. 1 for a starting period of five years.
This does not apply to village water system users or township residents who receive water from private wells. It only applies to the approximately 2,185 existing users of the township water system and any future users.
Because township water users pay their bills on a quarterly basis, the annual capital charge will be divided into four payments of $32 each.
The township board also voted 4-3 to raise the tap-in fee ? the fee charged for new connections to the water system ? from $4,800 to $6,075 effective Dec. 15.
‘We’ve got to pay bonds,? said Treasurer Joe Ferrari. ‘I’ve got two bond payments coming due.?
Ferrari was referring to the $17.725 million in Oakland County-issued bonds the township is obligated to repay for a whole laundry list of planned improvements to its municipal water system.
The improvements include construction of a 1 million-gallon elevated water storage tank, up to four treatment plants designed to remove arsenic and iron from the groundwater, and eight new water mains plus a raw water line to the planned treatment plant at Seymour Lake and Granger roads.
The first bond payment of $267,500 is due April 1, the second is due Oct. 1, according to Ferrari. This first series of bonds totalling $10.7 million is scheduled to be repaid from 2006 through 2030.
A water rate study conducted by the township’s engineering firm, Rowe, Inc., recommended the increased tap-in fee and new capital charge as a two-prong and equitable approach to repaying the bonds.
‘There are a lot of water system improvements occurring,? said Shirley Clancy, former township trustee and longtime member of the Water/Sewer Committee. ‘The perception out there is that’s all due to new development. And really that’s just an incorrect perception.?
Clancy said the treatment plants are ‘an important and extensive component of the improvements? and ‘would have been needed if we had no additional homes or new growth? in order to provide a ‘good, potable, safe water supply.?
‘Even if Waterstone had never occurred, even if there was no development north of the village, no water improvement needs in that area, Oxford Woods (well site) needed a treatment facility,? she said.
The treatment plants are primarily needed to reduce arsenic levels in order to comply with new federal regulations that lower the allowable levels of arsenic in municipal water systems.
Those new regulations take effect Jan. 22, 2006, however, the township, along with many other communities, is receiving an extension on this deadline through an Administrative Consent Order with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
‘Since (the township is) proceeding with making the necessary improvements, the MDEQ is allowing this work to progress and is willing to not assess fines for failure to comply with the new lower standard,? explained Shannon Parry, of Rowe, Inc. ‘As long as the township meets the dates set in the Administrative Consent Order, they should not face a situation where they are fined.?
Despite the new lower arsenic standards from the federal government, the township’s water is and has been safe to drink. ‘The new regulations are for lowering an existing (aresenic) standard which the township has always met,? Parry noted.
Clancy maintained that existing water users will benefit from the treatment plants and that’s the ‘rationale? behind the $128 per year capital charge which ensures ‘equity? among the system’s users.
‘Your (new) development has to pay its share for sure, but it shouldn’t have to bear the cost or burden of putting in something for others that they’re going to benefit from also at no cost,? she said.
Trustee Sue Bellairs cast the lone vote against the capital charge citing the ‘poor water quality? in the southern end of the township ? or ‘the end of the line? as she put it ? particularly in the Red Barn subdivision.
‘I just can’t justify at this time charging them more money until the problem is fixed,? Bellairs said. ‘I know what that area’s like. Shake the water over there and see ? that is not a joke up there.?
Bellairs was referring to a jar of rust-colored water ? in which iron particles have formed a sediment ? that sits on a shelf in the township board’s meeting room. It’s a water sample from Red Barn brought in by resident Helen Barwig.
‘I just can’t justify charging these people more money . . . when they can’t drink the water? and ‘they’re buying bottled water,? Bellairs explained.
‘I agree with Sue,? said Trustee Doleen Behnke. ‘I am on that end, the south end. I don’t have it as bad as the Red Barn area has it, but I cannot drink my water.?
Officials maintain the treatment plants, especially the one currently being constructed at the Oxford Woods well site, should help clean up the water by removing a majority of the iron, which causes the rust color and sediment.
Parry said the treatment plants ‘on average, should remove about 80 percent of the iron.?
Although the township’s $17.725 million worth of improvements to its water system seems like a lot of money, Parry explained it’s still much cheaper than the cost of connecting to Detroit’s water system.
The tap fee alone for hooking into Detroit’s system would have cost the township $12 million plus the $1.8 million elevated water storage tank would still be needed, according to Parry.
Add to this nearly $14 million cost, the need to acquire land in Orion Township for a meter pit and water booster station, and construct approximately two miles of water main through Orion to get to a connection point within Oxford, Parry said.
Also, Parry said Oxford ‘would have needed the additional well capacity? from the planned Granger Road well site ‘as a back-up supply source? because Detroit would not provide a secondary connection point for the township.
Based on all this, Parry said, ‘The total price tag for the project utilizing (Detroit) water would have far exceeded the current bond amount.?