Housatonic Water Works is seeking a rate hike to cover system upgrades. Customers are urging DPU to reject it

Banners last summer calling for Housatonic Water Works Co. customers to withhold payments over water quality issues were one form of protest over drinking water issues. Amid the company's request for a rate hike, residents are circulating a petition urging state regulators to reject allowing the increase in water bills. EAGLE FILE PHOTO

By Heather Bellow, The Berkshire Eagle
 
Sep 23, 2023
Banners last summer calling for Housatonic Water Works Co. customers to withhold payments over water quality issues were one form of protest over drinking water issues. Amid the company's request for a rate hike, residents are circulating a petition urging state regulators to reject allowing the increase in water bills.

A group of residents who are trying to solve water quality problems in Housatonic say that if the water company’s proposed rate increase is approved it would result in water bills that are on average more than any other state in the U.S., according to national statistics.

 Great Barrington: Public hearing on Housatonic water rate increaseHousatonic Residents for Clean Water is circulating a petition for submission to state regulators, and cite a host of reasons to reject the rate hike proposed by Housatonic Water Works Co., including this price data.
The group posted the petition to its website along with comments from residents ahead of Tuesday's rate hike hearing by the state Department of Public Utilities. The DPU will investigate the request and not allow rates to change until June.

SOUTHERN BERKSHIRES rate hike requested by Housatonic Water Works is on hold while the state investigates the request

The clean water group also says that Housatonic residents can’t afford such a steep increase since they make nearly half the statewide median annual income of $89,026, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Statewide, monthly water bills are on average $34.

Waterworks customers currently pay nearly $45 monthly for the first 2,500 gallons, the group says. The rate hike of 113 percent would more than double water bills.

The waterworks is asking the DPU for the increase so it can pull in revenue that will go toward $4.5 million in upgrades to fix water quality and fire hydrant flow issues.

Petition comments so far reflect the ongoing frustration and worry over water that has had elevated levels of disinfection compounds linked to cancer — those, however, have dropped back to regulation levels as of last month.
For other residents, water at times flows in yellow-to-brown hues and can be gritty.

“We have had a continuing issue at 19 Kirk Street, a 3 unit rental property,” wrote Jeff Caminiti in a comment on the petition. “Brown water has persisted, and we have one infant with a tenant unit ... they have concerns. We added a filter to help, at our cost and the cost of changing the filter on average every 6 to 8 weeks.”

Other commenters say the waterworks should fix the outdated system without a rate increase. They say past rate hikes haven’t solved water quality and believe that too little revenue is being reinvested into the system.

Complaints have soared in recent years about discolored water due to excessive natural manganese in the Long Pond source and an aging system does not filter it well. The waterworks has struggled to control elevated levels of haloacetic acids after a spike following heavy rains in July 2021.

Those concentrations have continued to fall and on Monday the waterworks reported that the quarterly average is now below what regulators say is a safe threshold. [See HWW press release here]
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But the worry has town officials and the town’s attorney continuing to hold closed-door sessions to discuss a possible purchase of the waterworks or some other solution.

Waterworks co-owner and Treasurer James Mercer told The Eagle that in the next 30 days new piping and monitoring equipment will help keep the system in compliance with regulations for those compounds, which are a byproduct of chlorine for disinfection.

The rate hike revenue would pay for a building to hold a new Greensand filtration system as well as a new water tank to increase hydrant fire flow — another issue that has vexed officials and frightened residents.

Mercer declined comment on the petition. When asked if a rejection of the rate increase would prevent the upgrades, he did not answer that directly, but said that traditionally rate cases tend to be settled in “negotiations to establish a rate that is equitable to all.”

The company as of 2022 has 749 Housatonic village and area customers, 22 customers in Stockbridge and 66 in West Stockbridge. Heather Bellow can be reached at [email protected] or 413-329-6871.