GRIFFITH — The Town Council plans a public hearing on a proposed increase in the sanitary sewer rate.
“We anticipate holding a public hearing at the first Town Council meeting in June and the rate increase to take effect with July customer billings,” President Rick Ryfa, R-3rd, said Thursday.
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Ryfa said the Hammond Sanitary District has dramatically boosted the wholesale rates it charges to its local customers.
“The nutshell is that Hammond rates almost doubled and, unfortunately, we have to pass” it along to our customers to keep our utility solvent, he said.
Hammond increased rates to Griffith in the second half of last year, with the last full year of the old rates in 2021 totaling up to $798,941.
He added the projected 2023 total billing, under the new rates, will be $1.7 million.
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Complicating the situation is that Griffith, Highland and Hammond signed consent decrees with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice.
“The decrees prohibit any of the communities from dumping diluted sanitary water into any of the local waterways. We have been discussing this for about a decade and are now in the implementation stage,” Ryfa said.
The decree also requires that Griffith increase the capacity of flow it can send to Hammond.
Ryfa said the current capacity is 5.5 million gallons a day.
“Griffith is required to be able to eventually send 15.5 million gallons a day. We will do that in a two-step process, starting around December 2023, by entering into an agreement with HSD to send a total of 8.5 million gallons a day.”
Ryfa also noted Griffith’s required increase in flow capacity is much lower than Highland’s requirement, which means Griffith will pay much less capital improvement money to Hammond than its next-door neighbor to the west.
Next month’s public hearing will introduce the proposed new rates as suggested by the Reedy Financial Group.
The current rate is $3.40 per thousand gallons; Reedy’s proposed rate, $6.29 — an 85% increase — would take effect July 1.
Starting in 2025, a smaller increase of 9.6% would bring the rate to $6.61.
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