PORT ANGELES – The public will have three chances next week to comment on water and sewer rate increases to be proposed by the Clallam County Public Utility District.
The amount of the proposed increase will be released at the first meeting, which is set for 5 p.m. Monday at district headquarters, 2431 E. U.S. Highway 101, east of Port Angeles.
The second meeting will be at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Sekiu Community Center, 42 Rice St.
The third will be at 5 p.m. Thursday at Clallam PUD’s Carlsborg Operations Center, 110 Idea Place in Carlsborg.
“We have to get in a position to recover our costs for both water and sewer service,” said Clallam PUD commissioner Will Purser.
Clallam PUD’s 2007 water department budget totalled $3.3 million, down from $4.5 million in 2006 because of fewer capital projects.
The district operates nine water systems – Fairview, Gales, Mount Angeles, Monroe, Carlsborg, Clallam, Panoramic, Evergreen and Island View – serving about 4,200 customers.
Clallam PUD gets its water from Morse Creek and various wells, as well as from a wholesale water contract with the city of Port Angeles that provides up to 40 percent of the water for the Fairview and Gales systems.
In May, Clallam PUD commissioners approved a 15 percent water rate increase – about $5 per month – effective June 1.
The reason for the increase, they said, was increased material costs, increased wholesale water costs, infrastructure replacement and debt service.
Those rising costs include a 19 percent increase – $19,000 annually – in wholesale water costs from the city of Port Angeles and increased financing costs for the Morse Creek water treatment plant.
The Morse Creek water treatment plant serves the Port Angeles Composite Water System, a network of six systems that serve the unincorporated area east of Port Angeles.
The district’s 20-year $3.5 million state drinking water fund loan has $200,000 annual payments through 2025.
The district paid only interest on the loan for two years while the water plant was being built.
A 2003 cost of service study recommended water rate increases of 4 percent per year for five years.
Water rates were increased by 5 percent in 2004 and 2005.
Then discussion of a “conservation water rate” distracted Clallam PUD staff and commissioners from pursuing those additional rate increases in 2006 and 2007.
“Now we are playing catch up,” Purser said.
