RONCEVERTE- During a second public hearing on the matter Tuesday evening, August 26th, Ronceverte City Council heard more comments from residents regarding the sale of the city’s aging water system to West Virginia American Water. Two years ago, WV American Water approached the City of Ronceverte, offering to buy the water and sewer systems for $31 million, which would include a water system investment of $18 million, and a wastewater system investment of $8 million. Once the water and sewer system is sold, WV American Water plans to replace all water meters, hydrants, main lines, and pump stations, as well as provide updates to the sewer plant. This week, city leaders have approved the ordinance of the sale, moving forward with the process.
According to Ronceverte Mayor Deena Pack, the city’s antiquated water system is in desperate need of a complete overhaul these days, instead of the continued and painstakingly slow process of “patching up the system,” which the city has tried to do over the past decade.
“The past several water projects that we’ve had going for the city of Ronceverte have helped stop some water loss, but not as much as we had hoped,” Pack stated. According to the Mayor, “despite our best efforts, we are still losing upwards of 50% of the water we purchase from Lewisburg. This is putting us at a deficit every month that the city has to cover, which is not sustainable.” Pack touched on several benefits of the sale of the system to WV American water including the retiring of the city’s water debt, and the freeing up of no less than $6 million for city infrastructure, which could be possibly put toward “sidewalks, roads, upgrades to the Island Park, upgrades to the armory and improvements to downtown,” just to name a few.
Several Ronceverte residents still voiced concerns and raised questions over the impending sale. Of utmost concern was the fear of additional raises on water rates. With the city having undergone several water rates raises in the past to fund on-going water projects, more than one Ronceverte resident seemed wary of additional rises, questioning where the limit would be. According to Pack,” unfortunately, given the state of our water system, on-going water losses, and continued maintenance and operational costs for our wastewater treatment facility, rate increases will be necessary, no matter what route we take going forward”. The city’s recent audit determined that rate increases are needed for both the water and wastewater systems.
While customers’ water rates would increase under WV American Water, the company claims that customers in exchange would receive “improved service, enhanced system reliability, regulatory compliance expertise, and continued investment in critical infrastructure”. According to WV American Water, which uses a flat-rate tariff across all of the state of WV, “Ronceverte customers would see an increase of about $7 to $10 a year”.
Another resident asked “instead of selling to WV American Water, could Ronceverte build its own water plant, like White Sulphur Springs and Lewisburg have?” While the city has looked into this option, Pack says it is highly unlikely, and the costs would simply be too high. “Even if the city got a $15 million bond to build our own plant,” Pack claimed. “The rate increase it would necessitate on our customers to pay for that would be way more than we are looking at with WV American Water.” The mayor went on to point out how the costs of a new plant in that case would be distributed over Ronceverte’s small population, rather than over WV American Water’s much larger customer base.
Less than 5% of the water treated by Ronceverte’s wastewater plant actually comes from the city of Ronceverte customers. Multiple residents therefore asked if sewer rates for these non-residential customers could be increased instead of raising water rates or selling the system. Mayor Pack responded, “while we could request another sewer rate increase through the Public Service Commission, if there were any challenges, it would require legal counsel, legal fees, become a drawn-out process, and the rate increase still might not cover the costs of normal wear and tear on the sewer plant.”
Pack further mentioned how one filter on the sewer system recently cost the city $90,000 to replace. “The offer from WV American Water is a good offer,” Pack continued.
“WV American Water will have the resources and funding to handle any big issues with water and sewer that might pop up in the future”.
“What about a ‘grandfather clause’ for water rates,” another Ronceverte resident suggested. “For the new people that move here, they will get the higher rate; while Ronceverte’s current 1,000 residents will be grandfathered in with the current rate”.
Pack agreed to look further into this possibility with WV American Water but made no guarantees. In the meantime, she pointed to several programs that WV American Water offers to assist customers with payments, one being the “H20- Help to Others Program,” which provides grants of up to $350 every 6 months based on household income and circumstances. WV American Water also offers a “low-income” tariff rate available to households with income less than $31, 920 a year, as well as a “Special Reduced Rate Program” for customers already receiving assistance such as SSI, WV Works, or SNAP for age 60-plus.
More residents worried that customer service would be less reliable and more impersonal with a large company, complaining that “having to call 1-800 numbers” instead of a local line they are familiar with would put unnecessary stress on the community. Mayor Pack assured residents that “the city and WV American Water are having on-going discussions about creating a local line to call” after sale.
Pack further stressed how local water and sewer employees will be offered new employment under WV American Water and will still primarily be the ones to respond to calls for water and sewer emergencies.
Over the past two years, Pack and other city council members assured citizens that they “have done extensive research on all options and discussed with other towns and municipalities all of the positives and negatives associated with selling to WV American Water.”
Mayor Pack closed the city council meeting Tuesday evening by poignantly saying “this decision will affect my family too, including my mom who is on a fixed income. We did not rush this decision, and we are doing the absolute best we can for the people of Ronceverte.”
