LAKE COUNTY ? A study of water and sewer systems managed by Lake County Special Districts will focus on raising rates to existing ratepayers and connection fees for new developers, according to special districts manager Mark Dellinger.
The Lake County Board of Supervisors will attend a public meeting scheduled for Thursday at 9 a.m. in the Lake County Museum on the second floor. Greg Clumpner of the Davis economic consulting firm Foresight will present the result of a study it has been conducting of the county”s 14 water and sewer systems since November 2007, according to Dellinger.
“So much of all infrastructure in California and in the nation has been ignored,” Dellinger said.
“Some people refer to it as differed maintenance ? you don”t do the repairs that you should be doing because you can”t afford it. If you do that long enough, the systems are in such poor condition that the cost to invest in them and bring them up to standard is huge. That”s where all infrastructure is headed,” he said.
Dellinger said the fix is raising new connection fees and phasing in hikes current ratepayers” water bills.
“Some parts of our systems are 60 and 70 years old. The longer you wait, the more it costs, because infrastructure gets older. As it gets older, its rate of deterioration tends to go up. So the problem gets worse and worse, like a snowball effect that builds on itself,” Dellinger said.
He added that ever-increasing state and federal regulations add to the cost.
Currently, sewer connection fees sit at approximately $4,400 on average. Water connection fees range from $1,000 to $18,000, less than half of the $43,000 fee in the city of Santa Rosa, according to Dellinger.
“The reason it”s so variable is that cap (connection) fees should be much, much higher, but we haven”t raised them,” Dellinger said. While he added that Clumpner”s presentation should give a more specific dollar figure to repairs needed to Lake County”s water and sewer systems, Dellinger estimated that number “in the tens of millions of dollars.”
“The main thrust of involving the board as a whole is trying to find solutions, to see if possibly consolidating certain water or sewer districts makes sense in order to increase the rate base to keep rates down for ratepayers,” county supervisor Anthony Farrington said.
Farrington added, “We”re going to look at it countywide to see whether there was improper management or financial irresponsibility, and rectify any irresponsibility over the years due to lack of proper rate structures.”
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
