City Council Passes New Amendment to Water Rates Ordinance

Last week, the City Council discussed water rates, and where water is used on city and public property.

Bill Riley, San Angelo Water Utilities Director, explained that prior to changing the rates and rate structure at the beginning of the year, the schools, city owned facilities, and non-residential landscape were exempt from the tiered rates of excessive use fees.

“It didn’t make sense to have all those rates, which made it harder to administer,” Riley said. “So what we did is change this process into two tiers with the majority of the usage being in 0 to 89 thousand gallons a month (TGM), and a small percentage in the greater than 89 TGM.”

According to Riley, the exemption was taken out for those users and did eventually burden them.

“The majority of their usage was between the zero to 89 thousand gallons a month range. Looking at the historical usage implied that it didn’t have a significant impact, but it does have an actual impact on those users. There’s probably, from the utility's perspective, anywhere from $100 to $150 thousand dollars a year impact,” Riley said.  

The water utility will conduct a review at the end of the current year to see what changes would occur with the new model.

“From the general fund side, it would have a much greater impact because of the cost to the parks department and their irrigation needs that they have in the parks,” Riley said. “We are proposing that we put the exemption back in so there would be all the landscape meters in parks, schools, colleges, and other city-owned facilities.”  

These would be built having a zero to 89 rate set at $4.46, rather than the $9.98 for the winter and $10.43 in the summer.

“The new ordinance places the exemption back in for those facilities so they can take that burden off of them,” Riley reiterated.

San Angelo Mayor Dwayne Morrison asked if it was all municipal water that would be used by the schools and city-owned facilities regarding the exemption.

Riley clarified that it would only be those places listed on the presentation to the council, and stated the past exemption was only intended for public places and not for taxpayers.

Morrison mentioned an occurrence six months ago at Fairmont Cemetery, noting that it is a city-owned facility, where he witnessed an individual spraying water that was taken from an aquifer at Browns pool in northern Tom Green County.

“He was not using city water, and he was not going to a city meter, but was, in fact, buying water from the aquifer," Morrison said. “If we are going to start giving cuts to cities and municipalities, we need to do away with the buying of water out of the aquifers.”

Morrison also mentioned Rick Bacon, county commissioner of precinct three, who is considering desalinating salt water because of how fast the aquifer’s resource is being used in the northern part of Tom Green County.

“There are tens of thousands of people living in the northern part of Tom Green [who] have no other water, or any other source of water,” Morrison said.

He continued by saying if there will be a cut back on the city, then there needs to be a rule about only using city water instead of buying from an aquifer.

“I doubt very seriously that the city bought water,” Rick Weise, Assistant City Manager, said. “We have sources of our own, so maybe they had a grave there and the individual was personally watering their part.”

Mayor Morrison disagreed and reassured that he watched a local citizen spray the water without being connected to a city fire hydrant.

Weise defended the point that the city wouldn’t buy water because there are sources available here that could be filled up without buying water from aquifers.

Roger Havlak, Parks Senior Manager, came forward and told the council that the only people who would go to the cemetery are private individuals with small tanks to water their land.

He referred to a serious drought in 2010 and 2011 when the Parks Department had to take out the water faucets from the cemetery grounds. Havlak explained they haven’t been replaced because individuals were using the water on their cemetery land and then taking it to their homes.

Morrison clarified it wasn’t a city employee he saw watering the cemetery, but an individual with a pickup truck and trailer.

“We can’t stop individuals from buying water and selling it, but I think if we are going to cut rates to the city, I think it should be their own water and not from an aquifer,” Morrison said.

City Manager Daniel Valenzuela specified the difference between residential or privately owned property, and showed why the previous rate was there for the use of the public.

“[The Public] can come into the park and use the water as well,” Valenzuela said. “This was with the previous rates; it just didn’t make it into the new rates.”

During public comment, Steve Hampton came forward and spoke of his concern of why the rates would go up if San Angelo is no longer in a drought situation.

“This is another tax involved with usage, but if that usage is charged then something else needs to be reduced for that additional charge, “Hampton said. “ The city is trying to get people and businesses to this community, but if the rates keep going up, they’re not going to come here.”

He closed by suggesting the city equalize the rates to what they were before the drought increased them.

The vote passed 6-1 with Mayor Morrison voting against the proposal.

“I’m going to say nay until there is exact wording that protects these aquifers,” Morrison said.