Montgomery and Prince George’s County leaders are divided on whether a new water service charge of about $240 a year is necessary to improve the area’s water system, with Montgomery Council members backing the fee and Prince George’s Council opposed to it.
The proposed “Ready to Serve” charge would go toward service improvements and is estimated to cost single-family homeowners about $20 a month.
The councils also differed on recommended limits for rate increases, with Montgomery Council members approving a maximum average rate rise of 9.7 percent.
But according to a report from Montgomery County staffers, Prince George’s Council members want to cap the average rate increase at 8 percent.
As pipes age, Montgomery County has had serious issues with water service in the past year. Problems have included about 1,900 water main breaks between July 2006 and July 2007.
A water main break shut down River Road this summer, and another break flooded basements around Bradley Boulevard in Bethesda and left thousands of customers without service.
“No one likes to support increases of this magnitude but I think the day of reckoning has come,” Montgomery County Councilman Roger Berliner said at Tuesday’s council meeting.
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission has suggested a number of funding methods to fix the infrastructure through a variety of rate increases or flat fees to fund repairs and will hold public hearings on the matter this winter.
The utility serves 1.8 million residents in the two counties and hopes to replace 34 miles of water main and 60 miles of sewer main during fiscal 2009.
“This is the most basic of all our government services,” Councilwoman Nancy Floreen said. “It is time to face the reality of the problem.”
