“Concerning infrastructure R&R (renewal and replacement), the most important issue was establishing and following a financial policy for capital reinvestment. Other critical concerns in this area are prioritizing R&R needs and justifying R&R programs to ratepayers and oversight bodies (such as city councils),” according to the report’s executive summary.
While Butler County sits atop the Great Miami Valley Buried Aquifer, one of the largest aquifers in North America, having enough water is not a major issue. But its two largest municipal water systems need to be in good working condition to get water to their customers. Keeping them that way as well as replacing the aging infrastructure will be a major financial challenge for local governments and in turn, the ratepayers.
Doug Childs, Hamilton’s public utilities director/general manager, told the Journal-News that the city has about 288 miles of distribution mains (about 4 to 12 inches wide) and about 53 miles of transmission lines (about 16 to 42 inches wide) to service the city’s 24,300 customers, 22,000 of which are residential customers, and extends to some portions of Butler County.
“Our Water Distribution System is in good working condition,” Childs said. “However, we will need to spend approximately $3.5 million dollars per year on main/service replacements. We intend to ramp up our main/services replacement budgets over several years in order to minimize the impact on rates.”
Childs said the average age of Hamilton’s water mains is about 63 years and that the ages of the city’s water mains range from the 1910s to just less than a year ago.
The vast majority of Hamilton’s water mains are made of cast iron – about 195 miles of it in the city system, he said. The remainder of the water mains are made of ductile iron, 94 miles; high density polyethylene, 24 miles; steel, five miles; concrete, five miles; and PVC with steel casing, one mile.
When asked about the general condition of the water mains and pipes in Middletown’s water system, Scott Tadych, the city’s public works and utilities director, said, “I would grade the overall condition a ‘D’… similar to most cities our age.”
Tadych said most of the city’s water mains and pipes are mostly pre-1980 cast iron and post-1980 ductile iron. He said about 5 percent of the city’s mains and lines are made of spiral welded steel, and only a very small amount is made of plastic.
He said the oldest water main is about 101 years old with the average age of water pipes and mains in the city at about 51 years old, just a few years younger than Hamilton’s system.
Middletown services 19,500 customers with its approximately 277.2 miles of pipes throughout its water system, which includes the city and some small pockets outside the city limits. Tadych said the portion of the city east of Interstate 75, which includes the areas around the Atrium Medical Center and the future AK Steel Research and Innovation Center, is serviced by the Warren County Water System.
Unlike what was recently found in the Cincinnati area, there are no water mains and pipes made out of wood in either the Hamilton or Middletown water systems.
Costs of keeping the system up
Maintaining the water systems in both cities is also a critical matter to ensure customers are getting the water out of their faucets for personal use as well as businesses that depend on it to manufacture their products and keep people working.
It’s also expensive for both cities keeping up with the leaks and breaks in their water systems.
Both Childs and Tadych said weather and age are the primary reasons for water main breaks in public right of ways. Other factors include the pipe material, pipe age, soil conditions, freeze and thaw cycles, poor installation, etc.
“Weather impacts the timing of the breaks, but the condition or age of the mains are (the) real cause for leaks and failures,” Childs said.
Tadych said Middletown averages about 220 water main breaks each year. Over the past 10 years, that equals about 2,200 breaks costing the city about $7 million in repair costs. He said the city spends an average of $1.2 million a year to replace water mains and pipes.
As to the cost of bringing the city’s water system up to totally good working condition over the next 10 years, Tadych said he did not have that information readily available.
Childs said so far in 2015, there have been 248 water leak repairs made in Hamilton. Of that number, he said 60 were on city water mains, while the remainder was on individual customer laterals.
On average, he said there were 122 repairs on the water service with 629 water main breaks over the past 10 years.
He said Hamilton spends about $600,000 a year on water distribution system maintenance, including labor, materials and paving. That amount does not include any capital improvements to the system.
“Last year, the city replaced approximately 1.4 miles of mains,” Childs said. “We spent $1.6 million. “
He also said that cost also included the replacement of all service laterals to those water mains.
According to city officials, in 2012, the Hamilton’s water system completed its five-year base rate adjustment program. In 2012, rates increased by about 6 percent, over 2011. The rate increases were needed due in part to the age of the system, among other factors.
In 2013, the city initiated a comprehensive Water Main Replacement Program, to be funded through a separate Water Main Replacement Program Rider, as opposed as through base rate increases.
Officials said in spite of these increases, Hamilton’s overall water rates remain competitive and are less than the average for Southwest Ohio.
As for water rates, both Hamilton and Middletown among the 66 southwest Ohio communities ranked in the annual city of Oakwood water rate survey as of March 1, 2015. Based on the usage of 22,500 gallons or 3,000 cubic feet of water in a three-month period, Hamilton users pay an average of $86.40 and Middletown users pay an average of $90.57. The highest amount in the survey was reported at $197.97, while the lowest amount was $54.90. The mean amount of the 66 communities was listed at $113.21 for the same amount of water in a three-month period.
Future projects
Tadych said the city is in the beginning stages of a $2 million project on Central Avenue that is replacing water mains between University and Breiel boulevards and is part of a road reconstruction project.
Childs said Hamilton is currently in the design phase for 2016 projects that will total approximately $2 million.
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