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The Petersburg Borough is looking at a 65% increase in sewer rates over the next five years, starting with a 25% increase in the next fiscal year. Also, next year, residents would see a 3% rate increase for water, and around 10% for electricity. Petersburg Borough officials say the increases are needed to keep up with the costs of much-needed maintenance projects.
“It bothers me the fact that we have to take all three of them at one time,” said Petersburg Assembly Member Bob Lynn, during a live radio show on Monday with KFSK.
Lynn said the significant sewer rate increases will pay for testing required by the federal government. For decades, Petersburg and several other coastal communities have had waivers to do just one round of treatment before discharging sewage into the saltwater. In Petersburg’s case, it goes into Frederick Sound. But the federal government is ending the waivers, which means Petersburg might need a secondary treatment.
“We’re going to have to take on this testing next year,” Lynn said. “We have to build a new lab to do this. And we will have to hire another person. It’s pretty complex testing that has to be done, that some of it even has to be sent out, we can’t do it locally.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency controls the waivers and works with the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation. For right now, it’s just more testing that’s required. Petersburg’s Vice Mayor Donna Marsh said they hope further treatment isn’t necessary.
“But right now, the state, I believe, state [Department of Environmental Conservation] is saying, ‘Sorry, you have to do it’,” Marsh said. “And for Anchorage, they are looking at a $2 billion increase, so when we are looking at $40 million for little Petersburg, maybe, you know, it could be a whole lot worse. But we’re hoping at some point, we can get another waiver or something that we don’t have to do that.”
The borough is also proposing to increase electric rates for customers. The increases vary, but the overall goal is 4% more revenue for the utility. The average residential customer would see an increase of 9-12% next year.
Petersburg, like Wrangell and Ketchikan, gets most of its energy from two hydropower dams operated by the nonprofit Southeast Alaska Power Agency (SEAPA). Bob Lynn is chair of the SEAPA board. He said the communities have exceeded their power in recent winters and have had to use generators as backup. Petersburg’s rate hike will help pay for the installation of a new generator at the Scow Bay neighborhood.
“There’s no way around it,” Lynn said. “We coordinate what runs between the three communities and so that we don’t wear all our personnel out at one time. But anyhow, we need that to be able to support our community.”
At about 3,300 residents, Petersburg’s population hasn’t changed much in the last decade. When asked why electric usage is going up, Lynn said he wasn’t sure, they just know it is.
“That’s the only thing you can really say,” he said. “Because between the three communities, our power usage is increasing about 3% a year — if you can believe that — between Ketchikan, Wrangell and Petersburg. The only thing I can say is, yes, increased usage.”
Petersburg’s water rates are proposed to go up by 3%. That revenue would pay for maintenance projects for pipes and water holding tanks.
At the borough assembly meeting Monday night, Assembly Member Rob Schwartz acknowledged that all the proposed hikes will hit those with fixed incomes the hardest.
“The cost of things going up, it’s got to get paid for somehow,” Schwartz said. “And it’s something I’ve wrestled with quite a bit, and I don’t know any other answer to raise the revenue to do this. But I value my water, my sewer and my power.”
The three rate proposals will have a few public hearings before the assembly decides whether or not to approve them. If voted in, the changes would start on July 1.
