Alcosan to raise rates more than 50 percent over next four years

First hike will be 17% next year

The Allegheny County Sanitary Authority will increase rates 17 percent next year, part of a series of rate and fee hikes that it says is necessary to comply with federal mandates to cut down on the billions of gallons of untreated sewage discharged into local rivers and creeks every year.

Alcosan, which serves 320,000 customers in 83 communities in the Pittsburgh area, bills municipalities, not individual customers, in all but three of the communities it serves — Aspinwall, Ben Avon and Thornburg.

That means that for the other 80 communities, Alcosan’s increases will come in addition to whatever rate or fee increases local water and sewer authorities may enact.

“Consumers also should be aware that 80 of the 83 communities Alcosan serves place an additional charge on the Alcosan rates with proceeds earmarked for community-owned sewer line repair, replace-

ment and maintenance,” an Alcosan news release says.

For example, Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, which has 66,500 customers, this month laid out its own four-year plan to raise rates 20 percent by 2017 to pay for a $150 million capital improvement plan.

Starting in 2014, the Alcosan usage rate, billed quarterly, will increase 73 cents per 1,000 gallons of water used to $5.05. The quarterly customer service charge will increase from $9.07 to $10.61.

The authority says a homeowner using 15,000 gallons of water per quarter, which a spokeswoman said is average customer usage, will see an increase of $4.19 per month. The yearly total bill from Alcosan for that average customer will increase from $295.48 in 2013 to $345.71 next year, said Nancy Barylak, a spokeswoman for the authority.

The 2014 increases are just the beginning.

The rates are scheduled to increase 11 percent each year in 2015, 2016 and 2017, part of a steady series of rate and servicecharge hikes initiated in 2008 to comply with a federal consent decree between the authority and the Environmental Protection Agency to bring the area into compliance with clean water laws. The rate has gone from $3.25 per 1,000 gallons in 2008 to $4.32 this year, and the service charge has increased from $6.83 in 2008 to $9.07 for 2013.

Ms. Barylak said 8 billion to 10 billion gallons of untreated wastewater are discharged into waterways every year in the authority’s service area as a result of aging infrastructure overwhelmed by heavy rain.

The increases will pay for $70 million in bonds issued to fund capital projects such as interceptor tunnel cleaning, pump station volume upgrades, grit chambers to collect sediment, new flap gates at the end of discharge pipes and biosolids recycling planning, among others.

“Throughout the year, we challenge each department to reduce costs,” Alcosan executive director Arletta Scott Williams said in the news release. “However, we have said time and again that rate increases to fund federally mandated projects contained in a consent decree to address sewer overflows would be needed. This structure will assist everyone in future planning as opposed to waiting to change from year to year.”