Don't Drink the Water
By: Christopher Smith
Date: April 23, 2006
I guess this was “make ex-pats feel good about their decision day” at the Buffalo News. It’s the only explanation for a wildly shoddy and incomplete piece of reporting on the disparate costs of water between cities and towns of Central Arizona and Western New York.
An Erie County homeowner using an average 6,600 gallons a month will pay just under $18 to the county water authority or $23 to Buffalo’s water department.
But in the sprawling City of Phoenix, the same volume costs less than $10 a month, even with fees and sales tax added and even during the summer months when Phoenix jacks up its rates.
Of course, this is an exceedingly complex issue and I’m certain the News will do a full investigative piece and consider all angles. They’ll probably even consult the experts and get an objective viewpoint.
Ryczek recalls that when he and his wife lived in Hamburg around 1999, they paid about $120 a year to the Erie County Water Authority, after their children had left home.
In Sun Lakes six years later, he and his wife pay about $113 a year. And over those six years, the Erie County Water Authority’s appointed commissioner raised rates five times for a total 22 percent.
Or, they could just ask a retired guy for his subjective analysis of the situation.
Anyhow, the issues that cause higher water rates in Buffalo are related to the age of the infrastructure, the cost of power, the lack of federal subsidies, and too many water authorities. Yes, we have a patronage system that appoints useless old fools like Ed Kuwik to highly paid positions as water distribution engineers but, it’s not the central issue.
If people wish to compare the systems, they need to consider the cost of pumping water through a 100-200 year old distribution system in the Northeast to the cost of operating a federally subsidized 30 year old system in cities like Phoenix, Mesa, and Tempe.
The comparatively older distribution network around Buffalo and Erie County demands constant attention. Buffalo loses 41 percent of the water it pipes through its leaky 900-mile maze. The Erie County Authority spends about $15 million a year maintaining its system.
“You guys are a lot older than us. We don’t have that problem,” said Sandra Schilling, speaking for the Phoenix water system. “But our system is starting to get into that.”
Phoenix expects to raise its rates 8 to 9 percent a year for the next five years to raise money for large-scale improvements, she said.
How interesting. You mean to say that Phoenix is struggling with it’s burgeoning populace and will soon have to raise it’s rates 40% to meet demand and maintenance responsibilities? A bit of quick math based on the numbers provided in the News article would demonstrate that the cost of delivering water in Phoenix will be equal to the rate paid to the Erie County Water Authority. The rates are rising at a faster clip than those in Buffalo.
2007: $2.16
2008: $2.35
2009: $2.76
2010: $3.01
2011: $3.28
I guess that’s not the kind of story we need to tell.
The federal government decades ago sponsored construction of the infrastructure that delivers water from the Colorado and Salt rivers to Arizona users. And the federal government, through the Bureau of Reclamation, continues to oversee those dams and causeways. But unlike Lake Erie’s water, Salt River and Colorado River water is not free. Phoenix paid $16.8 million for it last year.
So, the cities in Arizona have benefitted from the inherent cost savings of a $16BN federal program to build and maintain infrastructure? They never accumulated debt service on the construction or maintenance of these systems? Say it ain’t so!
As the News is wont to do, they under-report critical facts of the story in order to pump up the sensationalism of blaming taxes and patronage for our problems. What should be part of the discussion is how “Garden of Eden” cities are struggling to keep up with a growing number of people and businesses and are beginning to even out the cost of taxation. As Phoenix draws more and more people each year, they struggle to keep up with the need for cheap electricity, oil, and provide quality infrastructure. Sprawl is a major problem and taxes and fees are beginning to rise in order to pay for necessary improvements. Schoolchildren are taking classes in mobile trailers, illegal immigrants are both providing the cheap labor for development projects and also draining local resources. As an immigration crackdown looms, cities like Phoenix will struggle with the realities of a balanced economy.
So, what’s the answer to lowering our local water rates? Is it regionalizing the water authority?
“Erie County and Buffalo could do a lot more to share costs, even short of integration,” said George Hasiotis, a former water authority commissioner who also has a home in Phoenix. “They could plan for capital projects jointly and integrate the systems more fully at the margin where they need each other. For example, joint pumping systems and working together at low-pressure zones.”
I don’t pretend to have all the answers when it comes to a complex issue like this. Nor should the News. Especially when they do an incomplete hackjob on a story.
Is regionalizing a good thing? It would seem that we would be able to realize significant cost efficiencies on the intake and pumping side of the equation. However, replacing older water meters in older homes might result in higher water rates. I know that my water meter is about 90 years old, a new one would undoubtedly do a better job at measuring the actual amount of water that I use. This would certainly mean that I would pay more. Would this be a common theme everywhere?
If we had one authority that was focused on repairing distribution lines and tweaking the feds for money, would we achieve economies of scale that would ultimately benefit Buffalo and Erie County?
If that’s one thing that we can learn from the cities of Phoenix and Charlotte, it’s that less government is better and regionalized authroties speak with one voice when seeking funding for infrastructure projects.
We can do better and we deserve better from the News.
Christopher Smith is the author of the blog BuffaloGeek. This column originally was posted on BuffaloGeek.
© Christopher Smith, 2006.
The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent those of the WNY Coalition for Progress.
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