EDITORIAL: Water raises cost of living in Port

Inflation is cooling, and there is hope that the cost of living in the U.S., which has been soaring (a 5.8% increase so far this year), will settle down and at least rise at a slower pace.

Residents of the City of Port Washington, however, should not get their hopes up. A fundamental element of the cost of living in this city is about to take a shocking leap. Over the next two years, the cost of municipal water provided to homes and businesses is expected to rise by 67%.

Who is to blame for this astonishing cost increase?

The Wisconsin Department of Natural resources? No.

The DNR is mandating the $18.3 million improvements of the city water plant that is driving the rate increase, but its job is to ensure that the water provided to state residents is safe to drink, and that is the point of the expensive upgrades. All water utilities in the state are presumably held to the same standard by the DNR.

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission? Yes.

The PSC sets municipal water rates and its responsibility is to ensure that water utilities are financially viable, but it has signaled that it will require a 5% return on the city’s investment in the water plant improvements, which is unnecessarily burdensome. The 3.7% rate of return requested by the city would result in a substantially lower water rate increase.

City of Port Washington officials? Yes.

Elected and appointed city officials have been heaping blame on the PSC for the imminent water rate shock, using the state regulators as convenient scapegoats, but the buck stops at their desks. The projected increases will likely make city residents pay water rates that are the highest of any community in Ozaukee County and among the most expensive in the entire state. This outcome could have at least been mitigated by the foresight that is a basic expectation of officials in management roles and the elected members of the Common Council.

The $18.3 million water plant improvements are essentially deferred maintenance. Some elements of the water plant operation have been out of compliance with state regulations for years, and permitted by the DNR only as a temporary expedient. Had these issues been addressed in stages (and at a time when the cost of construction, materials and financing was markedly lower than in today’s inflated economy), rate increases would have been incremental and water-rate shock would not be looming as it is now.

Nothing will make Port’s water cost inflation palatable, but some context may make it a bit easier to swallow.

Wisconsin has the lowest priced municipal water in the country at an average rate of $20 a month, according to the website Wisevoter. The highest, in West Virginia, is $105 a month. Californians pay $84 a month. The national average, depending on what metrics are used, is $45, though the average for a family of four is $73 a month.

When the projected rate increases take full effect in 2025, the average rate in Port will be about $59 a month.

It is relevant, too, that with its Lake Michigan water, Port Washington will have a dependable supply forever. Other places in the country, those drawing water from wells with diminishing aquifers and other sources that could be threatened by climate change, do not have that assurance. On the other hand, lake water, which is prone to pollution, is more costly to purify.

Nonetheless, the increased price of water is going to hurt. By the time the two rate increases take effect, one this year and another a year or so later, the average cost of residential water will be about $700 a year, and certainly more for many families, if the PSC does not relent on the rate increase.

The punishing nature of the increase is most dramatically evident in the index of affordability included in state water rate comparisons. The index measures water cost as a percentage of median household income.

Port Washington’s is already high at .67% (compared to Grafton at .40%, Cedarburg .43% and Mequon .44%). With the recommended rate increases, the cost of water in Port will rise to well over 1% of the city’s median household income.

That number should be persuasive justification for the PSC to back off and allow a less painful rate increase. The commission can be encouraged to do that at a hearing in Madison, accessible on Zoom, on July 18 and in comments sent by email and regular mail to be received by July 20.

It’s worth a try, but don’t get your hopes up.

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Ozaukee Press

Wisconsin’s largest paid circulation community weekly newspaper. Serving Port Washington, Saukville, Grafton, Fredonia, Belgium, as well as Ozaukee County government. Locally owned and printed in Port Washington, Wisconsin.

125 E. Main St.
Port Washington, WI 53074
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