Future Plans

The Board is addressing many issues at this time.  The three most critical ones are how to sewer the most homes in a rapidly growing area in the shortest possible time, developing a long term plan to stabilize rates, and enhancing our current treatment capability.  Some residents don't see the need for public sewer service in their areas.  The problem is, the soil in Pulaski County is marginal-at-best for treatment of wastewater.  As the population has grown and become more dense, the incidents of contaminated groundwater and raw sewage on the surface have also increased.  If we are to have a sustainable supply of clean groundwater, it is critical that proper treatment of wastewater be utilized.  All water and wastewater utilities are also faced with increasingly stringent requirements for treatment of drinking water and wastewater and more proactive maintenance of our distribution and collections systems.  You have heard the term "unfunded mandate"?  Well, we ratepayers get to provide the funds to meet those mandates from Washington, DC, and Jefferson City.

One of the most common questions we hear is, "why is my sewer bill higher than my water bill?"  There are several reasons:  Our system is mostly newer - constructed at higher cost, and less time has passed for paying off that higher debt service (PVC pipe prices skyrocketed after 9/11 along with fuel prices and everything else).  We live in a very hilly area, so we have to pump the wastewater several times to keep it moving over the ridges until it reaches the treatment plant.  We live in an area of karst topography where surface water has many direct conduits into the groundwater, so we are required to treat the waste to a greater degree than most other parts of the country.  We clean the water after you dirty it up so that the drinking water folks can pump it directly out of the ground and into the distribution system - some of them without even disinfecting it.

Other questions concern our rates compared to the city the customer used to live in, and why the utilities are not on the same bill.  Municipalities have many sources of funds, including sales and property taxes.  Sometimes they keep water and sewer rates artificially low by subsidizing those departments with other revenues.  PCSD #1 has no tax support of any kind.  Cities have more dense populations than rural districts - more connections per mile means more bills to spread the cost over.  Most cities have treatment plants that were built decades ago, and often with grant moneys.  While PCSD #1 did receive a $5,000,000 grant in 1998, we were forbidden from using any of that money to construct a treatment plant.  The rural utilities have separate bills because we are all separate organizations with independent facilities and staffs.  There may come a day when some or all of the public water supply water districts, the sewer district, and the rural electric cooperative work together more than we currently do in Pulaski County - but it is not that way today.  I should also point out that a former director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources has said that the sewer bills in St. Louis County will soon average $60 a month - and that district is much more populous than ours.  An article in the St. Louis Post Dispatch predicted $100 per month, and stated that Atlanta and Boston already have bills that high.

We know many other residents have been concerned about when we can start work to address the need for sewers in their part of the county.  The process for getting approved grants and bonds released is a painfully slow one.  Current plans are focused on extending service to areas with the greatest housing density to get more homes connected for every dollar spent constructing the main lines.  At the same time, greater density will mean more paying customers which makes our goal of lowering rates much more attainable, providing double the benefit for our grant and bond monies.  We have also put together a brief summary of expected costs that residents in the areas to be served by new construction can use to plan for their expenses.

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The board is open to suggestions on the next phase of bringing sewer to county residents. We have had many inquiries as to whether or not we can extend service to areas outside the current planned areas.  The board strongly encourages Pulaski County residents to get involved and attend our monthly board meetings to help us frame our future plans.  Let us know where you think sewer service should go next. Or, send us your ideas via email.