Montgomery mulls more equitable sewer use fee

Present flat fee termed discriminatory as a system based on usage gets review

By: Greg Forester
   MONTGOMERY — Montgomery professionals gave their second presentation on a new sewer fee plan based upon usage to the Township Committee Thursday night as The Packet went to press.
   The township employees, led by Township Administrator Donato Nieman, had been asked to come up with a new way of charging residents for their usage of the township sewer system that would be beneficial to the township, and the environment.
   "We were asked to come up with a system that was more equitable for residents, being based on water usage, and one that would encourage water conservation," said Mr. Nieman. "We tried to find a way to do it, and we came up with what we consider to be the best system."
   The township’s current system charges residents a flat $600 yearly fee for homes, and non-residential and atypical dwellings are billed on their capacity divided by the water flow assigned to a typical residential unit.
   The new plan would most likely charge some sort of administrative fee, previously stated at around $100, and then charge the dwelling a water fee based upon usage.
   The last presentation had estimated usage fees of around $210 for relatively low usage of around 60 gallons a day, which would result in about $300 of savings to dwellings paying the $600 flat fee.
   Dwellings with extremely high usage under the plan under consideration would be given a fee estimate of around $2,000 for 1,000 gallons a day of usage, demonstrating the heavy emphasis on encouraging water conservation on the part of residents.
   The new administrative fee is designed to offset the increased cost of a usage-based plan because of greater staff work.
   The current flat-fee plan is based upon usage estimates placed on residential dwellings, while the new plan would require specific readings on all Montgomery dwelling units.
   Township officials said other topics of Thursday’s presentation would include discussion about implementing the new plans and the use of submeters for people using a large amount of water for outdoor purposes.
   This water seeps into the ground and never makes it into the sewer system, but with a usage-based plan residents would install submeters, at a certain cost, to measure outdoor water flow. This way, they would be able to avoid high usage charges for water never making it into the sewer system, township officials said.
   "People would submit readings from these submeters in order to have the reading subtracted from their usage-based water bill from the township," Mayor Cecilia Birge said.
   The impetus for the changes came from a desire for more equitability than is in the current system, which charges the same fees to a family of seven as for a home of two senior citizens using dramatically less water, township officials said.
   "I guess what it comes down to, in simple terms, is people currently living by themselves being charged exorbitant fees," said Committeeman John Warms. "At the same time, you have to balance that without making it overly expensive for larger families."
   Mr. Warms said he still needed to hear some discussion and get some answers about parts of the presentation, but the township had good intentions with the new plan. "Every problem like this has a good solution," said Mr. Warms.