Dear Village Water Customers,
I am writing this letter to inform you of the upcoming changes to our billing structure for water. Due to large investments in our water infrastructure, we are faced with the harsh reality that we have to raise our revenues from water to pay for upgrades. This increase will allow us to continue to provide the high quality water you have come to expect.
Currently, we utilize a minimum usage, admin charge, and a meter charge to account for our fixed costs associated with delivering water to your faucet. We plan to transition away from this system and instead implement a single quarterly base charge to more accurately account for these costs. The current minimum bill is $28.41 for water per quarter if you have a ¾” meter which most residential and small commercial businesses have. This charge includes your first 5100 gallons of usage. Under the proposed system, the minimum bill for the same size meter will be $21.00 per quarter. This will include Zero gallons of usage. Also, the price per thousand gallons will come down. Currently that price is $3.61 per thousand gallons and the price will drop to $3.39 per thousand for residential customers. Please see the attached spreadsheets to see how the current vs proposed usage affects you.
These rate adjustments have been a long time coming as we have attempted to maintain fairly steady rates over the past two decades. As I’m sure everyone is aware the cost of goods has increased sharply following the pandemic. We have been awarded two Water Infrastructure Improvement Act (WIIA) grants totaling about 5 million dollars in state funding. To receive these funds, the Village has to contribute about 6 million dollars. These WIIA funds will implement a state-of-the-art Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system, upgrade the medium voltage transformer and electrical hardware, and implement new sensors and analysis equipment at the Water Treatment Plant for improved safety, efficiency and automation. Next, a new water sedimentation and filtration building will replace 60-year-old clarifiers and filters to increase capacity and maintain compliance with the many emerging contaminants that are showing up in water systems around the country. We will also replace an aging water storage tank on route 98 North of the “5 Corners.” Lastly, We replaced (2) defunct fuel oil boilers and associated controls at the Water Treatment Plant with a Biomass heating system with fuel oil boiler backup that was covered 65% by NYSERDA’s Renewable Heat NY program.
The Village of Albion Water Treatment plant has year after year provided water that exceeds all State drinking water health standards. The availability of safe drinking water is considered one of the greatest public health advances of the 20th century and one of the most important reasons people are living longer. In the United States you can drink safely from virtually any public tap. We apologize for any inconvenience this rate adjustment may cause as we strive to continue delivering the highest quality of potable water to your homes and business at a reasonable cost.
Very Respectfully,
Adam Rush
Chief Operator
Village of Albion WTP