College Station Residents Should Insist on Impact Fees for Water/Wastewater Projects
Recently, the city completed its water and wastewater master plans. In the next 10 years, the city will be required to make additional capital investments of $43 million and almost $105 million, respectively, for those services.
Water and wastewater services both are enterprise funds, which means that all costs associated with delivering these services are met by the customers who use them. They are completely self-sufficient — no property taxes, sales taxes, or any other revenue sources are used to pay for them.
The $148 million worth of capital improvements will be paid for by borrowing the money over a 20-year period. The annual principal and interest payments will have to be met with revenues in the respective enterprise funds. In the coming months, the council will decide the fairest way to allocate these repayment costs among water and wastewater customers.
Who should pay the $148 million bill?
Council members all perceive themselves as fiscal conservatives. They each strive to keep costs as low as is compatible with the quality of service the city’s residents expect. Thus, all council members are likely to profess fealty to the central principle of fiscal conservatism, which is that those who benefit from a service should pay for it. If those who benefit do not pay the full cost of a service, then the rest of the community is required to subsidize those users.
Water Conservation: A City Success Story
by: John Crompton
College Station’s drinking water comes from wells located on Sandy Point Road west of Lake Bryan. From those wells, the water is pumped 13 miles to the Dowling Road Pump Station, from where it is distributed to residences and businesses. The wells penetrate 3,000 feet into the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer. Access to the aquifer is controlled by the Brazos Valley Groundwater Conservation District, the governing body charged by the state with ensuring the level of the aquifer is sustained.
The city had six wells at Sandy Point in 2007, when projections showed that the city had two significant issues with water supply: First, that peak daily demand was approaching maximum daily capacity, and second, by 2023 the annual demand would exceed the permitted pumping limits. This projection was based on the aquifer’s capacity, and included an informed assumption that the city would receive permission from the Groundwater Conservation District to drill four more wells (No. 7 in 2008, No. 8 in 2010, No. 9 in 2013 and No. 10 in 2018). However, one of the existing wells – Well No. 4 — would be lost. (more…)
