Customers make waves over Diamond Point water system
By Jim Casey, Peninsula Daily News
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At issue is a $3.12 per month boost for an average customer of the Diamond Point Water System, one of four owned by Gregory Roats under the banner of Aquarius Utilities LLC of Poulsbo.
While a vocal trio of customers complains of bacteria in the water, poor pressure and failing pipes and pumps, Roats calls allegations of poor service "very surprising.
"It's totally untrue, and I totally disagree with it.
"There's a few customers who just simply cannot be satisfied, no matter what we do."
About 100 customers, however, have signed petitions opposing the increase, said Leslie Farrell, one of the protest organizers.
Roats responded, "Those complaints are really the work of two or three people multiplied by the number of times they could get a signature."
Long-standing standoff
Ill feelings between the complaining customers and Roats go back several years.
Because of the Diamond Point System's large size, the state, not Clallam County, regulates it.
The state sends copies of its correspondence to the county, however, and Health and Human Services Director Iva Burks said the file is thick with contentious customers' messages.
Still, said Andy Brastad, the county Environmental Health Division manager, said, "Our information from the Department of Health doesn't indicate that Black Diamond is a badly run system."
Wayne Bailey, another protester, said that although Roats wants the increase to leverage construction of a new water tank, the system's real problems are with its 40-year-old pipes and fittings.
Surcharge to fix pipes
A proposed separate $5 surcharge, Roats wrote in a memo to customers, will finance upgrading the pipes.
Both the rate hike and the surcharge would be single-rate tariffs; that is, paid by the users of the Diamond Point network and by Roats' other systems in Poulsbo, Shelton and Port Orchard.
"Anytime he [Roats] does work on one, all the others pay," Bailey said.
But according to Roats' memo, the strategy produces economies of scale.
"You can get a lot more done with less cost with more participants," he wrote.
As for bacteria in the Diamond Point system, Roats acknowledged that a tank exposed to sunlight will get warmer, and warmer water in turn encourages the growth of bacteria.
However, he said, "very seldom does this occur.
"We have an excellent track record on coliform testing and coliform results."
Bailey, though, said Roats' way to treat the problem "for at least the last 10 years was to go to the top of the tank and pour in a bottle of bleach."
Takes effect July 14
The protesters, calling themselves the Concerned Citizens of Diamond Point, trade other charges with Roats.
They include the extended time it took him to procure a county franchise for water line right of way and a low-cost loan application that never produced a loan.
"He lost it because he didn't finish the paperwork," Bailey said.
Roats spoke of two loan applications, one in 2003 that he said the state discouraged him from pursuing, and a 2007 attempt the state likewise told him would go to other applicants.
As for the county franchise, he blamed the delay on the county engineer.
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission will open the public meeting on the proposed increase at 9:30 a.m. Thursday in the Richard Hemstad Building, 1300 S. Evergreen Park Drive SW, Olympia.
If approved, the increase would take effect July 14, Farrell said.
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Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or at jim.casey@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: July 07. 2008 9:00PM