Additional notes on campaign
statement by Alan Day:
"El Dorado Hills sewer bills that are 50%+ HIGHER on average than neighboring communities"
Summary comment:
The bar graph below compares Sacramento-area sewer rates. EID
wastewater rates are higher than those of service providers using
secondary treatment, lower than those of most other service providers
using tertiary treatment.
Those using only secondary treatment
are permitted to do so because they have high dilution ratios for
discharge into a river, especially the Sacramento River. However,
regulatory action is in progress to require them to use tertiary
treatment. This will roughly double their rates, probably making all of them more expensive than EID.
EID
wastewater rates are relatively low among service
providers already using tertiary treatment. Among these, the City of
Placerville's rates are about 65% higher than EID, as are several
Placer County service providers.
Additional
notes:
Most Sacramento County service providers use a single large
treatment plant, operated
by the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (SRCSD). It uses
only secondary treatment, has a high dilution ratio in the Sacramento
River, and probably benefits by economies of scale.
EID
treatment in the far west end of El Dorado County uses two treatments
plants. The El Dorado Hills Wastewater Treatment Plant has a capacity
of 4.0 million gallons per day (MGD), is planned for eventual expansion
to 5.3 MGD, and discharges into Carson Creek. The Deer Creek Wastewater
Treatment Plant has a capacity of 3.6 MGD, which is expected to be its
final buildout capacity. It discharges into Deer Creek. Both
plants are
required to use tertiary treatment in order to produce effluent with a
purity level generally similar to that for drinking water.
The
largest subsidy for EID rates is from sale of hydroelectric power
generated by Project 184. In 2010 this produced just over $8 million.
Rate Increases
Earlier
boards generally used relatively large sporadic rate increases. The
current board is instead increasing rates more gradually.
Rate increases should be expected as long as inflation exists and
infrastructure ages enough to require replacement and upgrading. The
Consumer Price Index probably is a fair guide to increasing labor cost
per employee. Other inflation costs for equipment and materials may differ from the CPI for a specialized agency such as EID.
EID employment is now at its lowest level since 2001, 10 years ago.
Growth of excess employment occurred only with the term of service of a specific past General Manager.
This graphic is a slightly edited rendition of a bar chart in the 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.
