MORGANTOWN – The Morgantown Utility Board anticipates seeking a roughly 20% increase in water rates in the coming months.
Communications Director Chris Dale said MUB will likely initiate that process in late summer or early fall.
Per the numbers provided, the increase would amount to $1.27 per every 1,000 gallons of water used, bringing MUB’s minimum water bill from $6.36 to $7.63 and the average bill – based on 3,400 gallons – from $21.62 to $25.94.
This is likely the first of two rate increases tied to a suite of projects identified by engineering firm Strand Associates during a comprehensive assessment of MUB”s water delivery system.
The initial increase will help finance the design and construction of the following projects:
- Telemetry – At a projected cost of $2.76 million, MUB is looking to replace the outdated radio telemetry equipment and programmable logic controllers used to control 81 remote sites pumping water throughout the system.
- Automated customer metering – As part of the opening phase of converting the entire system to an automated meter reading system, an initial 4,500 meters comprising the system’s largest and most difficult to access would be converted to automated meters, which allows billing data to be collected electronically. The project cost is $5 million.
- Distribution system Phase 1 – For $6.8 million, MUB intends to tackle four projects within its distribution system, including replacement of the internal and exterior coatings on the 400,000-gallon Morgantown Municipal Airport tank and the 150,000-gallon Greystone tank; the addition of a generator at the Wiles Hill booster station; and the relocation and replacement of a portion of the Monongahela Boulevard water main.
In addition, the initial rate increase would finance an expansion of MUB’s Green Bag Road central office and workshop/garage. A rough cost estimate for that project provided in October was $8.1 million.
Lastly, it would provide about $3.5 million for the design of two major projects coming down the road – a major overhaul of the Robert B. Creel Water Treatment Plant and a second phase of distribution system improvements.
MUB initiated work on the entire list of water projects in September by approving more than $5 million in task orders for Strand Associates to begin the design work.
The utility is working with Omni Associates on the office/garage expansion.
As mentioned, this is the first of two water rate increases coming down the line.
The second will come when MUB has a clearer picture of what it will cost to expand and update the water treatment facility. The most recent estimate given was $40 million.
“The actual construction of the water treatment plant improvements will require an additional rate change,” Dale said. “However, what that may be is impossible to project given we do not have a design, and we will most certainly seek funding from federal and state sources.”
In addition to passage by MUB’s board of directors, all rate increases must be approved by Morgantown City Council.
