With financing set up and engineering work nearing completion, contracts for $ 6.2 million worth of “catch-up” water system projects in and around Eatonton could be started this summer – and possibly completed by the end of the year.
The projects are intended to replace and improve Eatonton’s aging water lines, as cast-iron pipes from more than a century ago may remain within a few blocks of the courthouse.
Improvements include “looping” for water to flow two ways for better water pressure and fire protection, more valves, and GIS locators for all the lines, valves, and meters.
Two-thirds of the funding will come, directly and indirectly, through the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), leaving $2 million to be financed by the Eatonton-Putnam Water and Sewer Authority (EPWSA). ARPA will pay a 50 percent reimbursement when the projects are completed.
Together, the Eatonton and Putnam County governments have pledged $1 million over four years, with the money coming from their shares of ARPA funding.
ESG Project Manager Brice Doolittle told EPWSA board members last week that about 90 percent of the preliminary drawings for the projects have been completed, as well as about 75 percent of the mapping and modeling work.
Doolittle seemed unphased by a question about the availability of contractors, a possible hint that some, if not all, of the work could be done in-house by the right people with the right equipment. In addition to the projects themselves, the added bonus would be some of that federal money staying in Putnam County within the pockets of Putnam workers.
While much of the EPWSA board meeting involved approvals of expenses over $5,000 that might seem routine, system customers may gain some insight into the costs of running a dependable and reliable water and sewer system – and what role those costs play in their monthly bills.
Examples: $13,750 for completion of a new rate study; $11,840 for emergency repairs of collapsed sewer mains on East Marion Street; $5,000 for painting the lettering on two repainted elevated water tanks; lab equipment necessary for compliance testing at the two sewage plants – $8,638 for an autoclave, a water “bath” in the test for fecal coliform and a “muffle furnace” for burning inorganic waste removed from the sewage screens; $7,429 for a 3-inch hydraulic boring tool that punches its way underneath driveways, roads, and rights-of-way, and a mini-excavator for digging trenches that could cost as much as $80-grand.
The point is, the costs of maintaining and repairing hundreds of miles of water mains, valves, and pumps add up, and they are there whether a customer uses a drop of water or not.
These system costs show up in the computations for monthly water bills as the “base charge,” easily the largest component in the formula.
In the new rates approved three months ago, a city residential customer would have a base charge of $27.90 for water and $34.20 for sewer; a water-only customer outside the city has a base charge of $34.51.
Added to those base charges would be the costs of actual usage, which vary from customer to customer. However, actual usage for the typical customer, whether city or county, typically amounts to less than 10 percent of each monthly bill.