Water consolidation on the minds of Allen, Putnam suppliers

LIMA — It has been said that there is strength in numbers, and that mindset is behind the increasing local trend to consolidate and regionalize public water systems. This could give suppliers increased resources to shore up infrastructure and a larger voice in dealing with federal government mandates.

In 2013, the Allen Water District approved extending water service from the city of Lima to Rudolph Foods in Westminster, opening up public water to about 90 residents along that pipeline who were on well water at the time.

“I believe nearly 40 of the residents connected right away,” Allen County Sanitary Engineer Steve Kayatin said. “From my experience, I would say the rest will probably connect within the next 10 years because wells are not forever and we’ve provided a cost to connect that’s very competitive to whatever you’d have to pay to replace a well.”

Pros and cons

of public water

Those customers are joining a vast majority in Allen County, with 78.4 percent of all water usage coming through the public supply as of 2010, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That number far exceeds public usage in more rural surrounding counties, such as 56.8 percent in Hardin County, 56.1 percent in Auglaize County, 44.9 percent in Van Wert County and 44.8 percent in Putnam County.

“We serve most of the county,” Lima deputy utilities director Mike Caprella said. “Out of the 105,000 people in the county, we probably serve about 74,000 of them.”

Nearly 9 out of every 10 gallons of water used domestically in Allen County are from public sources, while that number drops to 50.7 percent in Putnam County, where a prolonged effort to establish a regional water district has run into difficulties in recent months.

“We had three public meetings to give a chance for some input,” county commissioner John Love said. “We had some pushback at the meetings, and part of the deal was that they didn’t like the structure of not electing the district trustees, and there’s no mechanism in the Ohio Revised Code to do that.”

Similar discussions on regionalization of water and sewer have taken place in Allen County, which could be more feasible, given that the county already has a regional water district and would just need sewer services added to it. According to Kayatin, regionalizing can help pool resources to combat aging pipelines, which caused 158 water main breaks in Lima last year, and better deal with federal mandates, such as Lima’s $150 million sewer overflow mandate from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“It would elminate redundancies and create a base structure that would allow other entities to join,” he said. “It could also stabilize rates and give the district more financial wherewithal.”

Having a regional water and sewer district would help expedite projects such as the expansion of water service to Eagle Railcar north of Cairo, which involves laying down a mile of pipe along state Route 65. While Kayatin praised the cooperation between the various entities involved, including the city of Lima, the Allen Water District and Allen County Commissioners, he knows that the situation here is the exception.

“Not everyone gets along like we do here in Allen County,” he said. “So let’s institutionalize that.”

Well water still viable

Kayatin also noted that any consolidated district would not have an obligation for people to join, giving those who still rely on well water the choice to keep what they have, which, according to Bill Kelly, director of the Allen County Public Health environmental division, is still a safe choice.

“For the private systems in our jurisdiction, we regulate the construction of wells, and assuming they’re constructed properly, they are safe supplies,” he said. “We’re not seeing groundwater aquafers being contaminated. In northwest Ohio, we have this good, thick clay layer that is protecting the groundwater aquafers from surface things.”

However, Kelly recognizes that rural residents may gravitate toward public water over time for various reasons.

“People prefer municipal supplies for the aesthetics of the water,” he said. “It doesn’t have the iron, the sulfur or the hardness issues. Homeowners with those kinds of wells probably spend a lot of money on softeners and filters.”

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Som Pandya, the Chief chemist of the water treatment plant in Lima, prepares a water sample to test its chlorine content on Friday. In the background is water treatment operator, Tim Williams, testing water for its PH and temperature. Craig J. Orosz | The Lima News
http://www.limaohio.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2015/09/web1_Water_Treatment_01co.jpgSom Pandya, the Chief chemist of the water treatment plant in Lima, prepares a water sample to test its chlorine content on Friday. In the background is water treatment operator, Tim Williams, testing water for its PH and temperature. Craig J. Orosz | The Lima News
Public water supply consolidation could reduce private wells

By Craig Kelly

[email protected]

Reach Craig Kelly at 567-242-0390 or on Twitter @Lima_CKelly.