MONTAGUE — Sewer rates are set to go up again, likely by the end of the month.
The impending rate hike is the result of an increased budget for the Water Pollution Control Facility that was approved at a Special Town Meeting last week.
The facility’s budget for the 2019 fiscal year was revised to $2,396,379 from the $2,017,231 budget that had originally been approved for this year at the Annual Town Meeting in May. Whereas the original budget had resulted in an increase of about 38 percent over the rates for the 2018 fiscal year, this revised budget is expected to push rates up to a total increase of 71 percent over last year’s rates.
That comes to about $14 more per 1,000 gallons used, said Water Pollution Control Facility Superintendent Bob McDonald. Based on state estimates of typical household water usage, the increase to customers’ annual bills will be about $500. The state estimates that the typical household uses about 100 to 120 gallons per day.
The Selectboard will vote on a new rate to reflect the revised budget, probably by the end of the month, said Town Administrator Steve Ellis.
The increased budget was necessitated by the end of the “Montague process” sludge disposal program and the closure of the Southworth factory — a “perfect storm” of losing two major sources of revenue at once, McDonald said at the recent town meeting.
Originally, from 2010 to 2016, the Montague process had been run through a state pilot program. It was a system in which sludge was consumed by the bacteria within it. At its peak in 2016, the program reduced Montague’s sludge disposal costs to $19,010 and brought $483,054 in revenue from other towns use of the program.
But because the process involved large amounts of solid waste, any heavy rainstorms or other extreme weather events posed risks for overflows into the Connecticut River. So after the town tried to replicate the model of the state-run program in 2017, the Department of Environmental Protection deemed it too unstable, too much of an environmental risk, and ordered the town to end it — which left the town with significant decreases in revenue and increases in expenses.
On top of that, the Southworth factory left an unpaid sewer bill of $250,000 when it closed in 2017; and a prospective sale of the company to another manufacturer, which would have restored the factory as a source of revenue for the town, fell through in February 2018.
The budget for the Water Pollution Control Facility that was approved in May tried to address these changes by reducing the Water Pollution Control Facility’s staff from seven employees to five, which would have reduced costs for wages by 26 percent. But after the May vote, the Department of Environmental Protection rejected that planned reduction, and instead required the facility to increase its staff to 8.6 full-time employees — another increased cost for the facility.
All this comes during a multi-year trend of decreasing industrial revenue for the Water Pollution Control Facility, McDonald said. Since 2012, industrial revenue has gone from about $644,000 a year to about $206,000.
Hence, the increased budget, which passed nearly unanimously at last week’s Special Town Meeting.
Over the coming years, McDonald said, the Water Pollution Control Facility will try to generate revenue through other sources. The town has a grant from the state to build a solar panel array at the facility, which is expected to begin construction in the spring and be operational in the summer. The town is also coordinating a new sludge disposal program with Greenfield, which could be operational in two to three years.
■to rescind $21,569 approved at the 2017 annual Town Meeting for maintenance of sewers
■to rescind $11,500 approved at the 2000 annual Town Meeting for consideration of the acquisition of a piece of land
■to authorize the Selectboard to seek an additional liquor license for the town to be used by Mystic Pinball
■ to authorize the Selectboard to take control of land at 8 Canal Road and alongside the bike path from Rastallis Street to Sixth Street to be conveyed or used for general municipal purposes in the best interest of the town
■$3,500 to prepare legal documents for subdividing land alongside the bikepath
■$19,750 for a technical review of the plan to cap a burn dump and build solar panels over it
■$9,535 to improve the greenroom at the Shea Theater
■$6,000 to buy back vacation days and sick days of the town clerk’s assistant, who is retiring
■$12,500 for equipment for MCTV
■to move $40,150 from Free Cash to the Capital Stabilization Fund
■to allow the town to use premiums on bonds as payment for the bonding process