PROVIDENCE – The Narragansett Bay Commission is seeking an 11.68-percent rate increase for sewer users, effective July 1, according to the utility’s proposed budget for fiscal 2009.
As a result, total “operating revenue is projected to increase by 4.8 percent,” the utility says in a 265-page budget document posted on its Web site. The rate hike, which requires the approval of the R.I. Public Utilities Commission (PUC), is needed to cover increases in operating expenses and debt-service costs related to the financing of ongoing capital improvements, the Bay Commission said.
Contributing to the rise in operating costs, among other factors, are bio-solids disposal expenses, which will rise 3.5 percent on Jan 1; and electricity and natural gas usage, which will rise when the Bay Commission’s new combined sewage overflow (CSO) facilities at Field’s Point come on line in October.
The budget also includes increases in various personnel-related expenses, including a 2.75-percent cost-of-living raise for union personnel that takes effect in FY 2009; merit raises for non-union workers; an 8.45-percent increase in health insurance premiums that will be partly offset by an increase in employee copayments; and projected premium increases of about 27 percent for workers’ compensation coverage and 1 percent for other insurance.
The Bay Commission plans to spend $33.8 million on capital improvements in FY 2009, and another $355.7 million in fiscal years 2010 through 2014. Most of that spending will go to four projects – the construction of nitrogen-removal facilities at the utility’s two wastewater treatment plants, at Field’s Point and Bucklin Point, and phase 1 and phase 2 construction on the ongoing state CSO project – which together account for 79 percent of planned capital expenditures from FY 2009 through FY 2014, the utility said.
The Narragansett Bay Commission – established as a public utility under a law enacted by the General Assembly in 1980 – provides sewage-treatment services to 10 communities in the Greater Providence and Blackstone Valley areas via its facilities at Field’s Point and Bucklin Point. Additional information is available at www.NarraBay.com.
