Water Works addresses drought, approves budget and rate increase

During their monthly meeting on Nov. 10, the Birmingham Water Works Board met to discuss current situations, including the drought and the annual budget for 2017.

In order to service all of their clients, BWW runs four raw, or untreated, water intake stations near or in Jefferson County: Mulberry Intake Station, in Walker County; Sipsey River Intake, in Cullman County; Inland Lake Intake, in Blount County; and Lake Purdy Intake, in Jefferson County. Together, these four stations have the capacity to pump a total of 289 million gallons of raw water per day.

The raw water is then sent to respective filtration plants that are scattered throughout Jefferson County and have the ability to pump out 189 million gallons per day. The plant with the highest output, Shades Mountain, also happens to be connected to one of the sources of water most affected by the current drought: Lake Purdy. 

“We do have a serious situation right now,” Darryl said, noting that Lake Purdy is currently down by over 19 feet. The county entered Stage 1 of the drought warning towards the end of September and has not seen any rain in 53 days. The last time Birmingham saw a drought to this degree, the year was 1924. “And we did not have the customer base in 1924 that we do have today. So based on our growth since 1924, this weather crisis is very significant and very serious.”

With the implementation of the drought management plan, the goal of the BWWB is to help their customers manage their water usage and make what is available last as long as possible. Jefferson County is currently in Stage 4, which limits water use significantly and bills any customers who go over their allotted water usage a 400% surcharge. “Now, we’re averaging between 101 to 105 million gallons [of water] per day,” said Darryl, which is down by about 10 million gallons from Stage 3. 

Darryl also mentioned that although BWWB has a very large customer base, it also has four sources of water. “Three of those sources are not in that stress situation right now, but we do have the southern source that is stressed right now.” Until the weather changes for the better, BWWB stated they are going to continue to update the public. 

“We do not know when it is going to rain again, hopefully soon,” he said. “Until then, we are going to manage the resources you have entrusted to us.” 

As part of their management plan, BWWB discussed their budget and current rates for the 2017 FY. After the public hearing, the board approved an operating and management budget of  $177 million budget and capital projects budget of $61.2 million.

The biggest change in the operating costs is within employee distribution, where many employees were transferred from capital to operating departments, which increased the budget by $1.67 million said Michael Johnson, Assistant General Manager of Finance and Administration. Other adjustments throughout the department add up for a $3.9 million increase from 2016, and an additional $53 million is projected for debt services, although a large portion of that is slated to be paid by revenue. 

For capital projects in 2017, the BWWB has allocated $61.2 million, which is an increase of about $2 million from 2016. The majority of these funds are reserved for maintenance and repair projects for the existing assets throughout the county, which is the main focus of the capital improvement plan, said Sonny Jones, Assistant General Manager of Engineering and Maintenance.

Within the various plans that BWWB has, the single largest by far is the Shades Mountain Filter Plant Improvements, which has been planned our over three years and will cost $14 million for this year alone. 

BWW has also set aside $15.2 million for replacing existing water mains and services, which will service galvanized steel pipes that are currently serve water to Birmingham and are wearing down, breaking, and developing holes in them. “We have about 350 miles of this in the ground, out of 6,000. So it’s very little, but it should take about $250 million to replace all of that main,” said Sonny Jones. “The sooner we get on with it, the better it will be.”

Another project, which will cost $5 million for this year’s work, is phase 6c of the Carson Loop. The loop is a pipeline that is designed to bring more water from the Carson Filter Plant to the Shades Mountain Filter Plant.

BWW uses all of this budget information, as well as projected water rates for future years, to determine the rates for their clients. Although the rates are being adjust during a severe drought, Darryl Jones assured customers that the drought does not have an affect on the prices. Instead, the increase was decided upon by analyzing the 2017 budget needs and the downward trend of water usage over the years, which can be attributed to energy-saving products and conservation conscious clients. 

To keep up with all demands, BWW has decided upon a 3.9% rate increase for clients. For the average residents customers, who use about 4,500 gallons of water per month, the bill will be approximately $1.52 more. Customers who use closer to 7,500 gallons per month will see an increase of about $1.92 for their monthly bill. 

While at the meeting, some Birmingham residents expressed that in the past decade, the water bills have only ever gone up, never down. Johnson again attributed this to the decrease in water consumption in recent years and the need to fund maintenance projects throughout the city. “They really do try to keep the rates as low as they can,” said Johnson.