Water rate meeting gets contentious

Coulee Dam residents got a taste of the difficulties in coming up with a fair water rate for the town at a public meeting last Wednesday night.

The audience got to hear and see how an increasing block rate would work in determining future water rates.

Mayor Greg Wilder, who had prepared the presentation, said that he planned a total of four public meetings to discuss possible ways to equalize the way people are charged for water in the town.

When it became a town in the late 1950s, instead of two federal construction housing projects, Coulee Dam inherited water distribution that featured a separate system for irrigation only on the west side of town, which back then housed only engineers. Fed mostly be gravity flow, water in that system has cost people living there nothing to water their lawns and flush their toilets, something Wilder said would likely have to change soon to satisfy state law.

On the east side of the Columbia River, residents use potable water for their toilets and for irrigation.

About 20 residents attending got to share their opinions, via a handheld electronic device furnished by the Association of Washington Cities, to questions or statements posted on a screen.

One statement read: “Every household should pay for every gallon of water they use.” Of the group, 39 percent strongly agreed, and 28 percent strongly disagreed.

When the residents were asked “Which of the two do you favor? (A- single block rate; or B- Increasing block rate)” some 73 percent wanted the single block rate while 27 percent opted for the increasing block rate.

Wilder had stated during the evening that having two different units in the town within a single rate class (one with free irrigation water and the other without) was unlawful and needed to be fixed.

A resident of the east side took issue with the mayor’s assertion. Keith St. Jeor stated that he had been in touch with government agencies and that a complicated fix of the water issue was unnecessary.

St. Jeor, who lives on Holly Street, spoke pointedly that all the town would have to do is lift its 10,000-cubic-foot limit for the basic rate and it would equalize the issue. He added that Wilder, who also lives on the east side, only wanted to cut his own water bill by $5.

“That is the most insulting thing that anyone has said to me in my life,” Wilder later stated.

After running overtime before a scheduled regular meeting of the town council, the mayor gaveled the water rate meeting to a close and the council went into its regular meeting.

Wilder went on to say that as mayor he spends eight to nine hours a day at city hall trying to fix problems that he maintains exist in the town.

Wilder’s presentation Wednesday showed that under the increasing block rate method of charging for water, the individual price of water increases with usage. This is usually accompanied by a “base” charge set by meter size. The chart states that it “may” discourage certain commerce and irrigation usage. Wilder’s chart maintains that this is considered the most equitable methodology in developing charges.

Wilder said he hopes to have a second meeting on water rates early in October to explore another rate option.