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Guest editorial: Protect current customers in SD1

The following is a re-post of a guest editorial published by the Enquirer on June 25, 2014, written by City Manager Larry Klein.[original link: http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/contributors/2014/06/25/klein-protect-current-customers-sd/11382077/ ]


There is currently a debate about how to use the sanitary and storm sewer rate hikes of 4.9 percent that Sanitation District No. 1 of Northern Kentucky recently approved.


The increase is to maintain the existing system. The homebuilding and development community would like to see rate hikes used to expand the system for new development in areas where sewers do not yet exist. While this does add new customers to help pay for the expansion, it may take years for those areas to be developed and new customers added. In the meantime, current SD1 customers will pay for the infrastructure investment needed for the expansion, possibly at the expense of maintaining the system for current customers.


Current ratepayers have already invested heavily in expanding the current system to allow for new development. They have funded two new treatment plants built in the last decade, one in Campbell County and one in Boone County. About 14 percent of the current customer’s monthly bill pays the debt service for these plants and conveyance systems, and represents about a third of SD1’s total debt.


The current system of addressing sewer needs is not sustainable because it pits the existing system against new development, which is our vehicle for growth in Northern Kentucky. A more balanced approach might mean more upfront financial participation by the development community to install new sewer infrastructure and by new ratepayers coming into the system.


On June 10, the Covington City Commission unanimously approved a resolution that stated any rate increases “ ... address the protection of public health, safety and property for current ratepayers of SD1 over projects that fund expansion of the system to serve new development.”


It is unconscionable not to make these needs the highest priority.


Many residents and property owners in Covington and other low-lying basin areas of the SD1 service area that have combined sanitary and storm sewers have suffered extensive property damage and had their families exposed to serious public health risks over the past few years. Some have replaced furnaces and water heaters several times in just a three-year period and lost family treasures that cannot be replaced.


Expansion of the sewer systems outside these basins has exceeded the capacity of the current system to carry stormwater through these communities to its final destination, the Ohio River. During dry weather conditions and even most wet weather conditions, these combined systems operate safely and adequately. However, during very heavy rain, the pipe size of these combined sewer systems cannot handle the stormwater, causing flooding and raw sewage to enter homes. In some situations the overflow reaches 5 to 7 feet deep in basements.


The need for growth and new customers is important, but there are many areas where sewers already exist that can be developed. Equally important is taking care of current customers and ratepayers, especially where the health and property of these ratepayers is at risk. That is common sense, and it should not take EPA regulations or a federal judge’s decree to fix this.


We urge the SD1 board – and Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties’ judges-executives and fiscal courts that oversee the SD1 board – to make public health, safety and property damage of existing ratepayers the highest priority.


A balanced approach that would allow for new development is certainly needed for the region to grow, attract new jobs and ensure the economic vitality of our region for generations to come, but not at the risk of public safety, health and property damage for current customers.