City of Libby water and sewer rate hearing held
Rates not questioned; water concerns raised
August 18, 2007
A grand total of eight Libby residents showed up for the City of Libby water and sewer rate public hearing.
The City Council is proposing a water rate increase of 3-point-2 per cent per month and a sewer rate increase of 4-point-2 per cent per month. That will bring the base water rate for city users to $24.34 and the base sewer to $20.77.
The City says the rate increases are necessary to pay debt service and meet obligations of rural development loans and to finance various improvements required to the municipal systems.
The comments from citizens at the hearing centered more on the low water pressure, residential irrigation and beautification, and concern about illegal wells within the city limits than the rate increases themselves.
Several residents cite pressure so low that underground irrigation systems do not function correctly. Others cited the cost of irrigating their lawns. The comments did not oppose the basic increase in rates for household water use like dishes, laundry, and bathing. It was more all about lawns.
Some want to know why International Paper is not providing city residents with free water to irrigate lawns since wells can no longer be drilled in the city due to pollution in the aquifer from decades of pole treating operations at the old mill site that contaminated the underground water source.
The City is working on a meeting of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Environmental Quality, the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, and International Paper to address that exact issue.
The City does provide city residents with one-thousand gallons per month of free water over the summer months to irrigate and is hoping to increase that amount to two-thousand gallons per month next summer in an effort to green-up Libby lawns for a better visual impression of the community. That thousand gallons or two thousand gallons is literally just the proverbial drop in the proverbial bucket. Several residents are reporting it takes 33 thousand to 35 thousand gallons per month to keep their lawns green.
The new rates take effect September 1.
Story by KLCB 1230 AM Libby News Radio, www.todaysbestcountryonline.com
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