Eastbayri.com

To the editor:

At the Nov. 30 Bristol Town Council meeting, Councilor Halsey Herreshoff referenced BCWA’s meeting minutes showing that BCWA is planning yet another rate hike.

Yet BCWA appears to be slow to implement the cost saving measures identified by the recent B&E Performance Audit. Councilor Herreshoff rightly concluded that BCWA must pick up the pace of positive change.

Town Council Chairman Ken Marshall offered up Newport’s planned 22.5 percent rate hike. But is this comparison to Newport appropriate as an attempt to support a BCWA rate hike?

BCWA’s Water Treatment Plant has long been relatively, if not totally, idle. BCWA and East Providence are similar in size and scope. Both buy their treated water through pipelines from the Scituate Reservoir. So if one desires to compare BCWA to other authorities, reason and logic dictate that BCWA’s water rates should closely align to the much lower rates of East Providence. But BCWA’s rates are in fact, much higher.

The RI Water Resources Board’s 2010 Water Rates Survey comparing similarly-sized water authorities, shows the average annual per-household costs for water:

BCWA $529.70, Kent County $416.12, Pawtucket $352.36, Woonsocket $314.46, Newport $376.24, East Providence $324.22, Providence $290.56.

Chairman Marshall further explained that Newport needs an $85 million bond to support the cost of upgrading their water production facilities to serve a population of approximately 35,000.

BCWA serves a population of approximately 50,000. If Newport will need $85 million to improve their water production facilities serving 35,000 residents, might BCWA face steeper costs to upgrade for water treatment? That’s not even considering that Newport’s raw water sources are safely in RI reservoirs, whereas BCWA relies on raw water from three Massachusetts reservoirs where the water rights are not controlled 100 percent by BCWA or the state of RI. Swansea, MA, once took a well from BCWA by eminent domain.

In spite of the risks, Chairman Marshall has not expressed any problem with BCWA’s “new Shad Pipeline/ old WTP upgrades” business plan, even though BCWA refused to provide residents with any reliable cost estimates.

Due to the recent work by the public, BCWA is now exploring a matrix of options. One option is a distribution hub rather than a water treatment plant. But water mains are crucial to a water distribution system. It has been previously pointed out by the public that BCWA could have obtained stimulus funds to replace old, decaying water mains. But Mr. Delise said stimulus funds involved too much red tape. So BCWA didn’t get any stimulus funds. Other water authorities got millions. BCWA attorney Sandra Mack said that BCWA uses debt (bond proceeds) instead.

Chairman Marshall must now step up and show good leadership. It is time for him to abandon his blind allegiance to the stale, old, rehashed BCWA rhetoric.

Newport’s issues are very different from BCWA’s and they mustn’t be misused to support water rate hikes for East Bay residents that really result from bad BCWA management decisions.

Gary Morse

Barrington