The Nashville Town Council had its first readings for water and wastewater ordinances this month, one of which would increase water rates to utility customers.
The readings for the ordinances were held at the council’s March 16 meeting.
The proposed increase is only to the water rates for customers served by Nashville Municipal Utilities.
Nashville Water Utility purchases its water at a wholesale rate from Brown County Water.
According to the draft of the town’s ordinance, Brown County Water raised its wholesale water rates as of Jan. 21 by 4.22%.
“It is necessary that the Nashville Water Utility raise rates by 4.22%,” the ordinance states.
The drafted ordinance also states that the town arranged for the municipal consulting firm of O.W. Krohn &Associates to perform a rate study of the utility in connection to the increase of cost, and the study indicated that the current rates and charges were “not sufficient to meet the reasonable financial requirements of the utility.”
With the new rates, the rate per 1,000 gallons for the first 10,000 inside town will be $14.65, an increase of 28 cents.
For those outside of town, the rate will go from $18.52 to $18.80 per 1,000 gallons.
Water rates were increased last in June last year. Before that, they were last increased in 2012.
Council member Anna Hofstetter made the motion for the first reading on March 16 and said that changes to the rates could potentially be made after the first reading.
Hofstetter also said that she spoke with Town Manager Sandie Jones and council member David Rudd to find “creative ways” to absorb some of the cost within the rate structure.
Rates paid for wastewater will remain the same, but other changes were made to the ordinance.
For the sewer ordinance the biggest difference, Jones said, is that Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) wanted the town to add regulations for the pretreatment of waste.
Multiple items were added to the “definitions and terms” section of the ordinance.
One item is “control authority,” meaning commissioner of IDEM or publicly owned treatment works (POTW) with an approved pretreatment program, like the town utility.
“Pretreatment” was added to the definition section and means that the reduction of the amount of pollutants, elimination of pollutants or alteration of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater prior to discharging or otherwise introducing pollutants into a POTW.
Following “pretreatment” in the definitions list is “pretreatment requirements,” which means any substantive or procedural requirement related to pretreatment, other than a pretreatment standard, imposed on an industrial user.
Pretreatment standards are determined and outlined in Indiana State Code.
“Interference” was also added to the definition section, meaning a discharge that inhibits or disrupts the POTW’s treatment processes or operations, sludge processes, disposal methods and the like.
Verbiage was added to reflect a “market rate,” so new construction and the like would adhere to whatever the current rate is, instead of needing to continually change documents through hearings and ordinances.
“This is our way of making it better so we can have a market rate sheet,” Jones said.
A public hearing for both ordinances will be at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 6 at Town Hall, 200 Commercial St. To read the ordinances, visit townofnashville.org/ordinances.
