If homeowners fret over what a leaky faucet or dripping toilet might do to their water bills, larger entities sometimes have bigger problems – and bigger bills.
Representatives of two such local entities spoke at last week’s meeting of the Eatonton-Putnam Water and Sewer Authority board. They came to see if “some kind of relief” might be available for line breaks that had gone undiscovered until the bills came in for thousands of dollars.
Such was the case for the Peoples Bank, which a year ago closed its Sinclair office but received a March water bill for more than $13,000 at that location. The several weeks of leakage occurred under the asphalt of the parking lot, but no one was there to see it.
Every customer now pays a small monthly “leak insurance” addition on their bills, but it is aimed at repairs of small leaks on residential properties and carries a maximum payout of $1,000. According to Peoples president Chuck Haley, the bank had received that $1,000 reimbursement but was still left looking at a $12,000 bill for water EPWSA had bought from the two-county Sinclair Water Authority.
Such was also the case for the Putnam County Sheriff’s office, which also houses dozens of prisoners in the county jail. The July water bill for the office and jail was “pretty normal,” said Sheriff Howard Sills.
However, the August bill came in at more than $25,000.
It was then that officers discovered a “massive” leak “outside the fence” that surrounds the jail. A break in a 4-inch main spewing water for several weeks is not the same as a leaky faucet.
“I don’t know what can be done,” said Sills, whose line of work does not normally include the intricacies of water billing procedures. He asked if the authority had a wholesale rate for large users, but added, “All of us are going to have to pay, one way or another.”
Some relief may be possible for any part of the bill over the average for its sewer service, indicated ESG project manager Brice Doolittle. Any other relief would take some study, which the board quickly ordered for discussion next month.
In other reports the board heard:
That both expenses and revenues were rising this year, with suggestions that some fees and rate increases may lie in the future; That work on a master plan can go “full speed ahead now; That moving – and upgrading to a six-inch line – the line in the expanded U.S. 441 right-of-way to serve more than a dozen customers on Pine Needle Drive will cost $66,000, with a portion paid by the Georgia Department of Transportation. The board approved the expense; That a lift station sewer pump on Hogan Industrial Parkway across from the Eastside Cemetery now requires weekly maintenance and should be replaced. The board approved the $34,000 expense; That lead service lines in the downtown area, like one on East Marion Street last month, are being replaced “slowly but surely” when they are located.
That an Atlanta developer is investigating the possibility of building 400 apartments on a 23-acre tract on Eatonton’s west side, but wants a fixed water/sewer rate for the entire property. “I am willing to negotiate,” said Doolittle. “But we are not going to accept the risk (of over-usage).”