WHAT OTHER AREAS PAY
$2.78 per 1,000 gallons: Cost Butler County pays to buy city of Hamilton water
$1.66 per 1,000 gallons: Cost Butler County pays to buy city of Cincinnati water
$3.91 per 1,000 gallons: Cost Warren County pays to buy city of Cincinnati water
$2.32 per 1,000 gallons: Cost Warren County pays to buy village of Waynesville water
Butler County officials are so angered by the cost of buying water from the city of Hamilton that they’re considering building a $100 million water well.
The county’s Water and Sewer Department director, Bob Leventry, said Tuesday the city is overcharging the county by 250 percent for water. The county is in the middle of a 20-year contract that requires officials to buy 8 million gallons daily from the city, which translates to $8.1 million worth of water year. The county pumps some of that water to nearby municipalities and townships, including West Chester Twp.
“(The contract) just was a bad deal for Butler County,” Leventry said Tuesday during a work session with West Chester Twp. trustees. “We’re paying the price of that right now.”
The county buys water from both the cities of Hamilton and Cincinnati. Hamilton charges Butler County $2.78 per 1,000 gallons and, in contrast, Cincinnati charges $1.66.
The cost for the county to buy water from Hamilton is high, said Doug Childs, the manager of energy operations at the city. But it’s a rate county officials agreed to, in part, because the city of Hamilton expanded its water treatment plant to accommodate for growth within the county for areas such as West Chester Twp. The county borrowed $35 million in bonds for that project, but Childs said the county kicked in that money to lower the water rate. The city also took out $59 million in bonds to finance the water plant expansion.
“Certainly, the rate is higher than we charge in city,” Childs said. “It includes a cost to expand the plant. We issued a lot of debt, we took all of the ownership risk and went out and did it. Looking back now, it looks like, ‘Why the hell did Butler County sign that rate?’ They had no choice. The only reason (the plant) expanded was to serve Butler County.”
The city charges Hamilton residents about $3.65 per 1,000 gallons which includes operating costs such as distributing the water, but the $2.78 charged to the county for every $1,000 gallons is just for the water itself.
The high cost of buying water from Hamilton is passed on to West Chester Twp.’s residents and business owners, who consume 56 percent of the county’s water supply yearly, Township Trustee Lee Wong said Tuesday.
“These charges are criminal,” Wong said Tuesday. “Our leaders in Butler County negotiated this contract and the residents of West Chester are paying for it.”
West Chester Twp. Trustee Catherine Stoker agreed with Wong and said the high water rates aren’t welcoming for businesses interested in settling in the township.
“Unfortunately,” she added of the contract between the city and county, “there’s no law against elected officials doing things that are really dumb.”
The contract was negotiated in 2001, with commissioners and an administrator who no longer oversee county operations, and doesn’t expire until 2021. Leventry said county officials are exploring alternatives to purchasing water from Hamilton, including constructing a $100 million water well, once the contract expires.
The county submitted an application to build a well field site near the Miami Valley River to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in April and that application is under review, Leventry said. He said the county would likely need to borrow the entire $100 million for the cost of the water well project, if it did move forward, because the county’s water department “doesn’t have anything like that amount of cash.” The well would take four years to construct, and the county has a projected construction start date of 2017.
Childs said the cost of building another plant on its own would make no sense and their water rates would “skyrocket.”
“We want to work with them not against them … We’ll evaluate anything they want,” Child said of negotiations once the contract expires in 2021. The city will be paying down debt on the water plant expansion until 2021
“We can supply water after 2021 at a tremendous rate,” Childs added.
Ongoing negotiations with Hamilton officials to lower current rates “have not proved fruitful,” Leventry said during Tuesday’s meeting. He also has reached out to the city of Middletown to look at options for the county’s future and is considering purchasing more water from Cincinnati after 2021.
Stoker said Tuesday she’s betting on the city lowering its rates once the county threatens to build its own wells.
“You realize the day you break ground is the day that Hamilton is going to cut its rates in half,” Stoker said.
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