PUD commission starts rate hearings

Wahkiakum PUD commissioners met Tuesday to hear public comments on proposed water rate increases for Puget Island and Westend customers and to take action regarding their membership in the Washington PUD Association (WPUDA).

Puget Island resident Pete Fleury shared his concern that many Puget Island residents live on fixed incomes. The incremental rate increases the PUD has implemented and plan to enact in the future are outpacing some island residents’ ability to pay their water bills, Fleury said. He asked if the organization had a cost management program in place.

PUD commissioner Esther Gregg responded that the commissioners had elected to implement smaller, more frequent increases rather than to hold off until a substantial rate increase was necessary.

Commissioner Larry Reese added “We are working hard to keep costs low and to look for cost effective ways to do projects. The state has started putting pressure on us to reduce water losses in our systems to fewer than 10 percent.” That will require a continued focus on upgrading and repairing the aging infrastructure of both systems, Reese said.

The commissioners also scheduled a rate hearing on Tuesday night at the Rosburg Hall to target Westend water customers.

Prior to the public comment session, the PUD commissioners met to decide whether to continue their membership in WPUDA after December 31 of this year. The decision needed to be finalized before June 30 otherwise the PUD would be liable for 2011 dues.

WPUDA, based in Olympia, has 27 member PUDs from across the state. It functions as an advocacy voice for PUDs and their customers at the state, regional, and national level. In the last two weeks, two of its largest members, Chelan PUD and Clark PUD, announced plans to pull out of the organization at the end of 2010. Another large PUD, Snohomish, left the organization within the last several years. In part, their moves were due to dissatisfaction with a voting structure that gave each PUD one vote in decisions regardless of size, said Gregg. She serves as the Wahkiakum PUD’s representative to WPUDA.

Annual membership dues in WPUDA currently cost Wahkiakum PUD approximately $8,000. The commissioners were concerned that dues for 2011 will need to increase considerably if WPUDA plans to continue its staffing and programs at current levels without income from Chelan or Clark, who paid substantially higher dues than Wahkiakum.

The board voted to leave WPUDA at the end of the year and tasked PUD Manager Dave Tramblie and PUD Attorney Tim Hanigan with preparing a cover letter to send with notification of the decision clarifying the commissioners’ concerns.