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Sewer rates vary across counties

Neighboring counties have different charges for sewer services.

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12:27 AM Monday, February 6, 2012

By Justin McClelland

Staff Writer

Sewer rates in Butler and Warren counties vary by as much as 45 percent depending on the municipality the user lives in, a survey of area rates shows.

Residents who use Butler County’s sewer system pay a lower rate than any other local system, according to a survey conducted annually by the city of Oakwood, comparing more than 60 sewer departments in southwestern Ohio.

Warren County users could see an increase in their rate if a commissioners agree to a 3 percent hike recently requested by the county’s sewer department.

A user of Butler County’s sewer system pays $84.12 if they use 22,500 gallons, or 3,000 cubic feet, of water in a three-month period. Conversely, a user of Oxford’s system would pay $122.49 given the same criteria, the highest in Butler County.

A user of Hamilton’s sewer system pays $119.58 every three months using Oakwood’s criteria, while a Middletown resident pays $105.87.

Every Butler County municipality falls within the midrange or lower of the more than 60 systems listed in the survey.

Mason and Waynesville are the two highest charging municipalities in the area. Mason charges sewer users $132.87 for the three-month time period and Waynesville charges $143.70. Carlisle charges less than any municipality located within Warren County, at $72.90. Lebanon charges $115.63, almost exactly the mean average of the communities surveyed, which is $115.95.

Bob Leventry, the director of the Butler County Water and Sewer Department, said his office made a conscientious decision to cut more than $1 million in expenses from the sewer department in 2009 and pass that savings on to consumers.

Among the cuts was reducing the staffing from 83 employees to 68. This cut reduced the labor expenses by $1.2 million, Leventry said.

The department also publicly bid its electric generation purchasing, reducing its costs from $1.8 million to $1.25 million annually. The agency eliminated contracted billing services and moved that component of the operation to an in-house operation for a savings of around $400,000. The net result caused Butler County’s sewer rates to drop by 17 percent for residents in single-family housing, Leventry said.

Mason city manager Eric Hansen defended Mason’s sewer rates, noting that in a survey that combined water and sewer rates, which he considered a fairer measure, Mason fell below the median average for water utility rates.

Hansen said the city offers a “summer sewer credit” to help residents. Sewer rates are derived from how much water is used by a resident and then presumably disposed of into the sewer. In the summer, Hansen noted, many residents use water in pools and gardening, bypassing the sewer system. With the summer sewer credit, an average water use is derived as a way to protect residents from being overcharged for their sewer usage, Hansen said.

Hansen also noted that the city had used its AAA credit rating to refinance its debt on infrastructure in Mason’s sewer system, saving taxpayers between $11 million and $14 million.

“It puts us in a great position to insulate our residents from rate increases,” Hansen said.

Warren County Office of Water and Sewer has requested a 3 percent increase in sewer rates for 2012 in addition to a $1.25 flat fee each month for replacement and improvement costs, said Patty Solinski, business manager for Warren County.

Solinski said the increase was necessary to keep up with the cost of operations, particularly electric and gas costs, which continue to rise, as well as shore up reserve funds for emergency repairs. Solinski said that personnel costs had not increased and in fact had gone down as the county had not replaced positions vacated through retirement.

The fee hike, if implemented, would move the average Warren County customer’s sewer service payment from $90.68 to $97.12.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4544 or jmcclelland@coxohio.com.

Sewer rates continued on A4

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