Protect Polk Water received its report from McGill Associates that gives alternate possibilities for managing the county’s future water needs.

Protect Polk Water is a citizen group formed this year in response to a now cancelled water contract between Polk County and the Inman-Campobello Water District (ICWD).

Keith Webb, PE, with McGill Associates delivered his report last week.

“The purpose of this ‘Water Issues White Paper’ is to briefly outline our understanding of the current issues, provide some history of water supply in our region, which should be beneficial in making future decisions, and provide our recommendations as steps to consider in the future,” said Webb in his report.

Webb gave four options the county could consider for operating its water system in the future, including to continue the current agreement with ICWD, to form a Polk County Water Authority, to form an expanded Polk County Water Authority or to join the Broad River Water Authority (BRWA).

Continue with ICWD agreement

Webb said under this option, the county would continue operations and management under the current agreement with ICWD continuing to operate and maintain Polk’s water system, bear all costs associated and receive all revenue of water sales.

Under this option, Polk would continue to be responsible for 100 percent of the costs for planning, design, permitting and construction of all future water line extensions. Webb said the advantage of this option is Polk can fund and continue to expand its water system into areas the county deems appropriate and there will be no increased operational cost to the county. The disadvantage, Webb said, is there will be no revenue associated with water sales within Polk County to help amortize the expenditure of funds for the extension of water lines. Webb said McGill recommends to assist in funding of future water line extensions, the county develop a revenue sharing arrangement with ICWD where a portion of water sales be returned to Polk.

“One possible scenario would be to implement a 10 percent increase in water rates for Polk County customers and that increase would be returned to Polk County as revenue sharing,” Webb said. “Based upon the current ICWD water rates, an average user using 5,000 gallons per month is currently billed at $29.91 per month. A proposed 10 percent increase would result in an average monthly bill of $32.92 per month.”

Form a Polk Water Authority

In forming a water authority, McGill says after forming agreements, Polk could receive water from BRWA through its 20-inch water line and sell the water to ICWD.

The inter-local agreement says that the 20-inch water line through Polk County is the property of Polk County and that all lines extended from that main line and funding by Polk are the property of Polk County.

“However the subject agreement provides the exclusive right by ICWD to utilize the 20-inch water line (construction of which was paid entirely by ICWD funds) to purchase water from BRWA and transport the water through the Polk County line to the ICWD master meter at the state line for a period of 30 years, or expiring in 2038,” states Webb’s report.

A rate structure remains in place through at least 2023.

Webb said obviously these rates and the previously agreed upon annual increases would have to be approved by BRWA and transferred to Polk County under and authority option. Additionally, Polk’s water authority would likely have to sell water to ICWD at the same rate which would result in no increased revenue for the authority, unless ICWD would agree to a rate structure with an increase.

Therefore, at least until 2023, Polk would generate no revenue from the sale of water to ICWD. If the water authority were formed, then the authority would have to assume operation and maintenance costs for the system within the county, states the report.

“To cover this additional unfunded cost the water rate structure for Polk County customers would have to be set at a significantly higher cost than the current ICWD rate until such time as there is a significant increase in customers within Polk County to help to keep the water rates at a lower cost,” Webb said.

Advantages of this option include that Polk would have full control of the county’s water system.

The biggest hurdle would be working out a long-term contract with BRWA, Webb said. Also, the sell of water to ICWD would likely generate no revenue for Polk’s system for the foreseeable future.

Form an expanded Polk water authority

Webb said one scenario for making option #2 more palatable would be for Polk to form a regional water system that would include the towns of Columbus and Tryon and City of Saluda.

“By incorporation and merger of these other systems the customer base would increase to approximately 3,900, which may allow for rates to be set at more reasonable levels,” states McGill’s report. “Each of the three water systems are currently interconnected and are interconnected with the Polk County system.”

A regional water authority would allow for the use of Columbus’ and Tryon’s water supplies as well as from the county’s BRWA’s supply. Webb said the use of Tryon’s and Columbus’ water supplies could decrease the amount of water required for purchase from the BRWA except in drought conditions when the Tryon water plant may not be able to operate at its full 2 MGD (million gallon per day) capacity.

“Combining all four systems into a single regional system could result in lower operation and maintenance cost and reduce the vulnerability of each system if operated separately in the event of drought or other emergency conditions,” said McGill’s report. “The biggest hurdle to this option is to determine if the assets of the Tryon, Columbus and Saluda systems are transferred to the authority and at what cost. In addition, if there is outstanding debt how does that debt get retired?”

Petition to join BRWA

The last option suggested by McGill Associates is for the county to petition and join the BRWA. BRWA would expand their boundary to include the areas within Polk County and would provide Polk with an appointed representative on the BRWA board, according to Webb. With this option, all of current Polk assets would be conveyed to BRWA and BRWA would assume operation and maintenance of Polk water lines.

“Each of the Polk customers would become a BRWA customer in-lieu of an ICWD customer,” states McGill’s report.

Webb said Polk water customers could potentially see a significant increase in water rates, based on comparison of BRWA and ICWD rates.

“The biggest advantage of this option is that full control and ownership of the water infrastructure and water resources would be by a North Carolina entity and the decision making at the discretion of the BRWA board,” states McGill’s report. “Joining the BRWA would also help to keep operation and maintenance cost under control and provide for a more efficient system. The current wholesale water agreement between BRWA and ICWD could remain in place with no needed revisions and modification.”

Polk County’s current agreement with ICWD for ICWD to maintain Polk’s water system was originally a 15-year agreement and is set to expire or be up for renewal in 2023.

Webb said given the current agreement, the recommended options provided by McGill Associates likely cannot be put into place before the end of the agreement unless the agreement is modified or amended.