| On July 1, a new water and sewer (W&S) rate went into effect as approved by the Longmeadow Board of Selectmen that has been most detrimental to thousands of Longmeadow residents, businesses, houses of worship, and community service organizations. Although I strongly support the upkeep and maintenance of our public W&S distribution system, the manner in which this action was implemented is not a source of pride for our Community. Clean water is not only a precious resource, it is a necessity, and an economic good. In November 2002, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Cultural, and Social Rights declared that access to water a human right and stated that water is a social and cultural good, not merely an economic commodity. Clean water has so many vital functions including health, fitness, hygiene, and sanitation; water has many utility functions such as maintaining our cars, irrigating our lawns, and keeping our flowers and food gardens healthy. As an economic good, our water/sewer system must be managed and maintained properly and remain financially accessible for maximum utilization to minimize cost. The postcard that was distributed throughout our community announcing only a 15 percent increase was false and misleading; the recently enacted W&S rates will be far greater. The proposed tariff is actually based on a W&S budget increasing from $2.4 million to $3.9 million, a 58 percent increase! And if the 58 percent increase was not enough for this year, Article #5 at the upcoming Town Meeting will be asking us all to pay $103,000 MORE for W&S. Since the W&S tariff is structured so that the cost per unit of W&S increase in an ASCENDING manner with greater usage, the cost for both water and sewer increases disproportionately with customers who simply use more water. In Longmeadow, an ascending rate tariff has not been done before and such a policy only creates divisiveness in our community. Conservation should be practiced by everyone; disproportionate pricing signals discourage conservation. What possible benefit is there for our community to subsidize the cost of W&S service on the backs of houses of worship, school and nursing homes? The disproportionate increases for the Public Schools and Municipal Buildings are now hidden tax increases. The traditionally and properly accepted practice is to establish a cost-based approach and calculate water/sewer tariff components that are constant, not ascending. This new policy is inappropriate and in fact is a textbook example of undue rate discrimination. Although this new rate policy was being implemented in the name of water conservation, the biggest waster of water in our community is the Longmeadow infrastructure itself. Based on recent detailed analysis, the unaccountable water consumption taking into account hydrant flushing has increased from approximately seven percent to 28 percent within the last four years. That's right, 28 percent of our present total water use, over 300 million gallons per year is either leaking or not being fully metered. It is of further concern that Longmeadow has not completed a leak detection survey in more than 10 years. The sudden change in rates is unjust. There was no public hearing on the Earth Tech Report before the new rate was implemented on July 1. Since the new policy was implemented after water had been consumed, many customers were unable to avoid huge W&S cost increases on their recent billing; how is this fair? Why is it necessary to financially punish people to conserve? If we want to reduce lawn watering, why don't we simply reduce lawn watering? In past years, when we have had draught conditions, our community has cooperated with voluntary odd-even watering schedules. Why are only commercial and selected residential customers allowed to have irrigation water meters? Please attend the Nov. 27 Fall Town meeting; vote on Article #5 and Article #16 to let our elected officials know how you feel on these W&S issues. Curt M. Freedman, PE, CEM Longmeadow |
