Sewage bills set to triple to fund $1.2B in upgrades

Monthly bills for sewer service in Hampton Roads already have doubled in the past five years, and now they're expected to triple over the next 20 years, the result of a massive infrastructure upgrade program estimated to cost at least $1.2 billion.

Starting this fiscal year, sewer rates are projected to increase every year by between 4 and 8 percent through 2031.

That means homeowners would pay an average of $19.83 per month this year and $60.45 per month by the end of the 20-year cycle, according to estimates prepared by the Hampton Roads Sanitation District.

About half of the upgrade work by the district is required under new government rules and orders intended to curb sewage spills from leaky old pipes and to curtail nutrient pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.

Most of the rest is aimed at modernizing an immense web of pipelines, pumping stations and other industrial hardware in the 17 cities and counties served by the Hampton Roads Sanitation District - projects that agency officials say should have been tackled years ago but were put off in part to keep rates low.

Ted Henifin, general manager of the district, says the public agency that handles wastewater for 1.6 million customers is caught in "a perfect storm" of tougher environmental regulations, federal and state enforcement actions for past problems, and too many years without a serious maintenance plan.

"Politicians don't like spending money on pipelines and such," Henifin said in a recent interview. "We're just the unlucky ones now holding the bag."

Several local politicians, however, said they did not know about the planned rate hikes until asked about them by The Virginian-Pilot. They said they'd heard that the district needed to repair some of its treatment plants and underground lines because of government mandates, but they did not know the extent of the financial consequences.

"Oh, my gosh," Portsmouth Councilman Steve Heretick said when told about the projected tripling of rates. "I certainly have not seen or heard of numbers like that. Wow! How do they expect folks to keep up their payments with increases like that?"

Norfolk Councilman Paul Riddick, who has questioned water and sewer rate hikes in the past, saying many of his constituents already are struggling to make ends meet, was equally dismayed.

After combining the rates with the likelihood of new tolls on area tunnels and roads, along with some of the highest garbage disposal fees in the country and a sour economy, Riddick said, "I don't think the consumer can stand much more of this."

The Hampton Roads Sanitation District is one of those regional government bodies that, like the local garbage authority, gets little scrutiny. Its board meetings are rarely attended by the public or the news media. Some elected leaders said this week they do not know who represents their city on the district's governing board of commissioners.

The board, whose members are appointed by the governor, approved the $1.2 billion infrastructure plan this past summer after months of debate about the size and scope of the upgrade program.

But the agency and its commissioners said little about it afterward, and no elected officials were on hand to grasp the significance. Only three of the eight sitting commissioners responded to questions this week about the group's deliberations.

"There is no unnecessary work being performed," Gerald Johnson, who represents Chesapeake on the board, said in an email. "Putting off work is not always the best answer."

The district was created in 1940 after sewage pollution got so bad in tidal waters that the Virginia Department of Health condemned huge areas of oyster grounds because of unsafe levels of bacteria from unchecked human waste.

The action woke up voters, who that year overwhelmingly approved a sewage management agency to clean up the mess.

Today, the district can treat up to 249 millions gallons of sewage a day, churning the wastewater through nine major treatment plants and four smaller ones on the Middle Peninsula. It needs 500 miles of pipes to handle the job.

The agency was forced to approve rate hikes five years ago after the state Department of Environmental Quality cracked down on several older cities with weathered pipes that too often sprung leaks during rainstorms.

The escaped wastes typically gushed up through manholes and washed into nearby creeks and rivers. The state required that the district and the cities gradually begin replacing the outdated lines. This expensive work continues today.

Then the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency got involved. As with other areas around the country facing similar problems, the EPA pressed the district and most of the cities and counties in the region to commit to a full-scale repair program.

Under an agreement, the district has until 2018 to complete 33 overhaul projects, costing an estimated $140 million - and that does not include what the affected cities must pay.

The other mandate is directed at the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that sewage treatment plants release into waters that feed the Chesapeake Bay. These nutrients are the biggest pollution sources in the Bay today, causing algae blooms and dead zones that are slowly choking the air out of North America's largest estuary.

Regulations aimed at reducing nutrients in wastewater have led the district to undertake seven plant upgrades, including facilities in Norfolk, Suffolk and Virginia Beach, costing a combined $432 million, according to agency data.

Henifin recently led a tour of one project under way at the Army Base sewage plant in Norfolk, a plant opened in 1948 on the Elizabeth River near Norfolk Naval Station.

Contract workers in hard hats and safety gear slogged through a muddy construction site in piecing together a whole new section onto the plant, one that will grow tiny bugs to eat pollutants - a process called "biological nutrient reduction."

The project is expected to be completed by 2014.

Eighty-five percent of the $1.2 billion upgrade program is borrowed money, loaned through the sale of bonds. The rate hikes are needed to repay the bonds.

Asked why the district is borrowing so much money instead of going piecemeal in order to soften rate hikes, Henifin did not hesitate. Interest rates on bonds are extremely low in the current economic climate, he said, and engineering firms and contractors are hungry for work and ready to deal.

"If there ever is a time to spend $1.2 billion, this is it," Henifin said. "We'd end up paying more doing it another way. This was our best option."

The rate hikes, he conceded, are large. But according to EPA criteria, they still fall within fair and equitable standards. He mentioned cities such as Cincinnati, Atlanta and Indianapolis as shouldering higher rates in order to modernize their utility systems.

Suffolk Councilman Robert Barclay, who sits on a city committee that oversees utilities and public works, was philosophical about the upgrade program and resultant rates.

"We all want cleaner air and cleaner water," Barclay said, "but in a down economy, the financial impact of attaining these new standards of cleanliness hits everyone so much harder."

He added, "People wake up and notice the impact and see the headlines and ask, 'How in the world did we get into this mess?' "

Scott Harper, (757) 446-2340, scott.harper@pilotonline.com