A handful of residents visited Town Hall on June 10 to complain that the Old Bridge Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA), the autonomous entity in charge of providing water and sewer services in the township, is overcharging for their services.
Virginia Estwanick of the township’s Madison Park section said she hoped ratepayers would see that an injustice was being done.
“Over the past year, the minimum [quarterly water payment] has decreased 40 percent, from 10,000 [gallons] to 6,000 gallons. … Our prior rate was $70 for the first 10,000 gallons. The rate now is $69.37 for 6,000 gallons,” Estwanick said. “They reduced the amount of water, but they didn’t reduce the cost. The savings is only 63 cents [on 4,000 gallons of water].”
To put the issue in perspective, Estwanick referred to the disparity between the quarterly water and sewer bills in Old Bridge and Sayreville.
“We are paying more per quarter than Sayreville is paying for the year. I think that there should be some investigation as to why,” she said.
Councilman Richard Greene, who is an MUA commissioner, defended the agency, saying it is at a disadvantage because about 40 percent of the water the MUA uses must be purchased from the Middlesex Water Co., a private distributor.
The MUA “relies on a private entity’s charges for a good portion of the water that is sent to you. The MUA also does not control their waste fees; they rely on the Middlesex County Utilities Authority. Our waste is shipped there, they treat it, and we have to pay what they feel is the appropriate charge. So, there [are] two partners that the MUA has that they have to adjust their rates to,” Greene said.
“When you talk about this 10,000 [gallon minimum] and 6,000 [gallon minimum], we listened to the residents of Old Bridge who came to us and said, ‘We don’t use 10,000 gallons, we only use so much.’”
But when reducing the minimums, the MUA did not reduce the costs, Estwanick argued. However, Greene said the MUA’s charges involve “more than just opening your tap and taking a gallon of water. It’s all the infrastructure that must be maintained by the MUA. It’s the breaks that occur that [service workers] go out and spend 10 hours trying to fix.
“It’s the cost that we have to pay to Middlesex Water, to the Middlesex County Utilities Authority and for the personnel to deliver the water and sewer from your house.”
Comparing Old Bridge’s rates to Sayreville’s is misleading, Greene said.
In an MUA survey that ranked 60 nearby towns’ annual minimum water and sewer payments from highest to lowest, Old Bridge ranked 34th with an average annual payment of $1,046. Sayreville ranked near the bottom, at 57th, with an average annual payment of $722. It was not clear whether towns in the survey purchased water from private distributors like Middlesex Water Co.
Mayor Owen Henry said he has been vocal in his opposition to water and sewer rate increases, but stressed that the council had little or no influence over the MUA.
Councilman Kevin Calogera disagreed.
“This council has all the influence over the MUA. This council appoints all the MUA commissioners,” Calogera said, adding that even though he had voted for council members to serve on the MUA in the past, the process should be examined. He said council members should not be eligible to serve as MUA commissioners.
While Estwanick acknowledged that the council’s power over the MUA was limited, she said the aspects of the operation that could be controlled have been mismanaged.
“Some of these members of the MUA had 54 percent raises over one year, from 2008 to 2009, and 24 percent the next year. The raises for some of these people were astronomical.
A nine percent raise was on the low side. This was back when people were losing their jobs and people’s salaries were being frozen,” Estwanick said.
In response to several residents’ concerns over the matter, the council and administration ordered a careful observation of the MUA.
“We are in the process of looking to see if they are doing the right thing and see if it’s possible to reduce the rates,” Councilman Reggie Butler said.
That was a necessary first step for Estwanick.
“If we’re not doing something right, my suggestion is to go to a [less expensive] town and learn what they’re doing. If they’re building a better mousetrap, go there and find out how we can build one too,” she said.