County to increase water, sewer rates

Water and sewer rates for more than 4,500 customers of Douglas County utilities will increase this summer. How much that increase will be will depend on where people live and whether the county combines the budgets of its various utility funds.

The county operates seven different water utilities between Carson Valley and Lake Tahoe. The size of those utilities range from the smallest at the fairgrounds which serves about three-dozen customers to the East Valley water system that serves more than 2,400.

Without consolidation, those customers of the fairgrounds system would see their water rates go up from $43 a month to $332.

The 137 residents served by the former Sheridan Water Co. would find their rates more than double.

About 1,100 customers of the Cave Rock, Zephyr and Skyland utilities would see smaller increases.

By consolidating the funds for both the Tahoe and Valley water systems, rates would go up to an average of $70 a month, which would mean residents of East Valley would pay almost double their existing rate of $32. Even if consolidation did not occur, East Valley residents would experience some rate increase to pay for arsenic treatment.

"We're paying for the future now," County Manager T. Michael Brown said. "But we recognize this transition is going to be hard."

County commissioners recognized that if they consolidated the water systems, there will be some protest.

"If we truly implement this, there will be a sobering reaction," Commissioner David Brady said. "We inherited a lot of these systems and they were not always managed in accordance with sound financial practices. Along the way a lot of people saved a lot of money on their water bills. This is the day of reckoning."

Brown pointed out that all the customers are Douglas County residents.

"These systems were acquired by the county, not always willingly," he said. "Having a $260 a month increase in the water rate is frankly unreasonable."

County Public Works Director Carl Ruschmeyer told commissioners that no money has been budgeted to deal with depreciation of the north Valley Water Treatment Plant.

"We've relied on interest and connection fees to cover the budget for years," Ruschmeyer said. "But at the rate we're going, we'll see a deficit of $500,000 or more by year's end. We can't continue to do business as we have in the past. We have to do a substantial rate increase to get the fund healthy."

After making its debt payments, and accounting for interest and connection fees, the sewer district lost $66,621 in the year ending June 30, 2008.

Last year, the sewer plant's income included nearly $400,000 in connection fees, which won't be available this year to help defray costs due to the slowdown in new home construction.

The sewer plant serves most of Johnson Lane and western Carson Valley from Genoa north.

"The numbers we bring back are not going to be very palatable," Ruschmeyer said of the potential rate increase.

Commissioners agreed to pursue consolidating the water systems. The county will hire a consultant to finalize the new rates and present them to the public before they're approved.