The Nashville Town Council held a public hearing for its water and wastewater ordinances on April 6, and adopted changes to the wastewater ordinance.
Those who pay Nashville Municipal Utilities for water will see an increase of 28 cents to their water bills if the council adopts the rate increase at its April 20 meeting following the second reading of the ordinance. That change would go into effect on ratepayers’ June bill.
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 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.
The rate increase is unrelated to the ongoing water loss issues that the town faces.
Town Attorney Wanda Jones said that there are “significant” infrastructure issues to be addressed. The current proposed rate increase will not address those issues, she said.
“This rate hike is something that our wholesaler is charging us and we have to pass on because we’re a (nonprofit),” she said.
“We don’t really have a choice, that’s the truth. We don’t have a choice in passing this on.”
Rates paid for wastewater will remain the same, but other changes were made to the ordinance, which was adopted by the council following the public hearing.
For the sewer ordinance the biggest difference, Town Manager Sandie Jones said last month, 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 the 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.
‘Very discouraging’
Three residents spoke at the public hearing on April 6, questioning the rate structure that is in place.
The residents said their water use “doesn’t even come close” to the first 10,000 gallons of use.
Council member Anna Hofstetter said that she has been looking into the trends in water usage for residents.
She said she has found that many residents are using about 3,000 gallons of water per month, and a “good chunk” of residents use less than 2,000 gallons.
Hofstetter said she had some ideas on how to edit the ordinance to make things easier for people on lower or fixed incomes that way they are able to afford water.
“I’m interested in a progressive rate structure. This would address exactly what you’re concerned about it,” she told residents.
That decision is totally up to the council, she added, and she is gathering data to “persuade fellow council members.”
One resident said that she was “very in support” of having a rate structure that is more encouraging to water conservation.
The resident is a one-person household, she said, and her water use ranges from 600 to 900 gallons per month.
“And I pay just as much if I were using way, way more than that,” she said.
“It’s very discouraging. It doesn’t motivate you to be careful. I’m going to be careful anyway because I’m a good person, but it’s very discouraging when you don’t seem to benefit from conserving this really important resource.”
The second reading of the water rate ordinance will be at the council’s monthly meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 20 at Town Hall, 200 Commercial St. To read the ordinances, visit townofnashville.org/ordinances.
