Lower Burrell Council raised the base sewage rates by 9% but will not raise real estate taxes for 2020.
Council on Monday unanimously passed the city’s $10.97 million budget for 2020, keeping city real estate taxes at 22.75 mills.
A Lower Burrell homeowner assessed at $18,210 would continue to pay $414 in real estate taxes to the city in 2020.
The base sewage rate will increase from $98.17 to $107.01 per quarterly bill.
Council raised the sewage household consumption rate by 44 cents from $3.56 to $4 per 100 cubic feet. An average household that uses 1,200 cubic feet of water per quarter will pay $5.28 more per quarter for water consumption. Currently, that customer is paying $42.72 a quarter and with the increase in 2020, they will pay $48, according to Lower Burrell officials.
Like a number of communities in the region with old or inadequate sewage systems, Lower Burrell is under a consent decree from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Protection to eliminate or decrease combined sewage overflows into public waterways.
The city forewarned residents earlier this year that rates will increase in the future to pay for $7 million in renovations for the city’s aging and failing sewage system.
As a reminder of the precarious state of the city’s sewage system, its largest pump station, the Chartiers pump station at the bottom of Edgecliff Road, went down Monday because of a cracked valve, said Jeff Fleming, director of public works and parks.
The station pumps sewage from about half of the city through the Leechburg Road area to a treatment plant in New Kensington.
An emergency crew from McCutcheon Enterprises of Allegheny Township brought in equipment to pump about half of the city’s sewage over the hill to the New Kensington treatment plant. Then the city found two pumps out of state to rent until the rest of the pump stations’ equipment is repaired to back online, according to Fleming. The station is expected to come back online later this week.
More rate hikes are expected in the future to pay for future projects.
“There is no choice about what we have to do,” said Councilman Robert Hamilton. “The choice is how to roll it (rate increase) out and to do it over time rather than have it hit all at once.”
City Council unanimously agreed to provide the Municipal Authority a $250,000 bridge loan so it can complete the paperwork and plans for the $7 million sewage system upgrade, which will be paid for by a PennVest loan.
