PWSA approves limited shut-off moratorium
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A temporary moratorium on water service shut-offs will take effect Dec. 1 for eligible customers of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority.
The PWSA board agreed Thursday to implement the moratorium, intended to help lower-income households that fall behind on their bills. The suspension will be in place through March 31, and eligibility is limited to residential customers whose annual income is 250 percent of the federal poverty level or less.
For a family of four, that positions the eligibility threshold at $61,500. Board members have said the seasonal effort — during the cold weather — echoes practicesat other utilities.
“This is just the first step,” said PWSA board member Deborah Gross, who pushed for the moratorium.The authority is developing a more comprehensive customer-assistance program, which the board is dueto take up Nov. 8.
Robert Weimar, interim executive director at the authority, said he couldn’t cite the exact rate proposal Thursday. Last month, he said PWSA was eyeing a potential rate increase that would outpace this year’s 13 percent boost. The administration has said higher rates are necessary to continue strengthening the failure-pronewater system.
It’s more than a century old.
“As a result of the work we’ve done over the past year, we are far more confident about the condition of our facilities. We’re far more aware of some of the issues that need to be corrected, and we’re in the process of doingit,” Mr. Weimar said.
Among the major improvements underway is a rehabilitation of the Lanpher Reservoir in Shaler. Problems with a covering there led to a boil-water advisory over the summer. Mr. Weimar said the facility, which normally serves the North Side, Reserve and Millvale, should return to partial service soon.
Underan order this week from the state Department of Environmental Protection, the Lanpher rehab must be completely finished by the end of 2018, Mr. Weimar said. It’s among several large projects noted inthe order, which requires critical upgrades and repairs “specifically to ensure adequate pressure and volume within the system,” DEPsaid in a statement.
The order prioritizes reliability improvements to Bruecken Pump Station, which distributes drinking water from the PWSA treatment plant in Aspinwall, and the Highland Park Reservoir No. 1, where the authorityplans to pursue an ultraviolet treatment system. PWSAsaid the mandate will expedite upgrades already inthe works.
DEP’s order “is really just taking this deeper look at what’s going on and then taking steps to just clarify, in writing for all parties, what the highest priorities are,” DEP spokeswoman Lauren Fraley said.
The order means that infrastructure “funding must come as a result of increased rates,” Mr. Weimar said. He said regulators question why PWSA rates lag behind those of comparable water providersnearby. Relatively low rates limited the money available for past system maintenance, city officials havesaid.
“We want to make sure that these issues DEP has raised — and I’m sure they’re going to raise others before we’re through — are going to be the principal things we focus on,” Mr. Weimar said. “That’s what we’ve tried to budget for in thiscoming year.”