Carmichaels Municipal Authority
CARMICHAELS — The Carmichaels Municipal Authority on Monday voted to seek an engineering firm to review its water system while board members try to negotiate a lower cost for a proposed interconnection with a neighboring water authority.
At the behest of customers who petitioned the authority to buy water from Southwestern Pennsylvania Water Authority in Jefferson Township because contaminants were discovered in Carmichaels’ plant and water last spring, the authority obtained a proposal for an interconnection with Southwestern.
The proposal was delivered just prior to the authority’s regular March 12 meeting, which was continued to Monday to publicly air the proposal.
Authority member Edgar Harris said the $213,500 that Southwestern wants to tap into its line in Nemacolin would add $10 to the $6 that customer pay for each 1,000 gallons of water they use each month and $2 would be added when the authority would draw water from Southwestern’s system.
Average customers use 4,000 or 5,000 gallons a month, Harris said. Those using 4,000 gallons would see their monthly bill rise to $42 in the first year and $32 in the second year from their current bills, which are $24, he said. Customers paying $30 for using 5,000 gallons, would see their bills increase to $50 in the first year and $40 in the second year, Harris said, noting that he rounded Southwestern’s cost up to $216,000 and the number of customers from 1,754 to 1,800 to prepare the cost breakdown.
Those projections only would cover the cost of tapping into Southwestern’s system. Adding engineering, permit and right-of-way costs could drive customers’ bills even higher, Harris said.
One of the customers who led the petition drive, Terri Donaldson of Cumberland Township, said passing the tap-in cost along to customers was like punishment and she asked why the authority couldn’t absorb that cost.
Harris said the board has to run the authority like a business and spending $216,000 would drain a significant part of its reserves.
“I don’t know if I’m in favor of doing the interconnection at this point,” Harris said…”I don’t like the idea of that charge being on consumers.”
Authority Chairman John Konkus said all board members agreed that Southwestern’s proposal was too expensive and they would try to negotiate a lower tap-in fee.
In the meantime, requests for proposals will be sent to engineering firms experienced in public water systems today and their proposals will be due in a week so that the authority can conduct interviews before its next meeting on April 8 and hire a company at that meeting, Harris said.
He said engineering firms will be rated on their experience with water systems and how quickly they would be able to begin reviewing Carmichaels’ system to recommend improvements or changes in operations.
One operating change — not allowing the water storage tanks to become more than half full — is showing results, Harris said.
Authority Manager Lloyd Richard said tests of water samples taken in February and early March show trihalomethane (THM) levels were well below state drinking water standards.
THM was found in the authority’s water and algae was found in its treatment plant last spring. The THM resulted in a boil-water advisory from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Bromide, which is in raw water from the Monongahela River, and chlorine, which the authority uses to disinfect water, react to form THM.
The bromide is coming from industrial sources in Greene County, said Ken Dufalla, of Izaak Walton League.
He said the league has been working with universities and environmental agencies to test water in Greene County over the last year and will present the results at a meeting in the Goodwin Performing Arts Center at Waynesburg University at 7 p.m. April 12.
Displays and other information will be set up in the lobby at 6 p.m.
“Our bromides are coming from Greene County,” Dufalla said. He said the league will ask industry to eliminate the sources of the pollution. “We can have economic growth and clean water,” Dufalla said.