With the approval by the Lycoming County Water and Sewer Authority of their 2025 budget and the associated rates some customers will see their bills increase while others will remain the same.

Homeowners in the Montoursville Regional Sewer System (MRSS) will see an increase of $10 per month, bringing their rates to $95 per Equivalent Dwelling Unit (EDU) per month. Rates will also increase in the Mifflin Manor Sewer, Limestone Water; and Regional Water systems in 2025.

The authority’s total budget is $7.8 million, up from the 2024 total of $7.1 million. A majority of that, $4.8 million, is for the Montoursville system.

Christine Weigle, executive director, said that there were a number of factors that influenced the rate increases.

“There’s a number of issues that we’ve been dealing with over the last three and a half months, that we’ve been working on the budget. This ties back both to the regional water increase as well as the Montoursville regional sewer increase,” Weigle said.

“There’s a number of different legacy issues that we’re faced with. Obviously, for the past year we’ve been talking about the Montoursville regional sewer outfall project. Securing that permanent easement in place was the best solution for us, both fiscally and operationally, but it does come at a price of $2.3 million and that project needs to be paid over five years,” she said.

Fortunately for us, we had the benefit of working with the county commissioners to get a million dollars of that $2.3 million, but that means $1.3 million needs to be paid by the sewer customers over a five year period,,” she added.

The authority has been able to use some of their reserves to “help soften the financial blow,” but there is a trustee agreement, because the authority’s bond issue is guaranteed by the Lycoming County commissioners, which requires that $1.8 million must be held in reserves.

“We started to dip into that reserve for the Montoursville Regional Sewer System’s outfall project and we needed to put forth a replenishment plan. So, we have been working on that over the last year and a half, anticipating the outfall projects, securing the million dollar grant with the county commissioners this year and then beginning the annual payments in 2024 which will carry on through 2028,” she explained.

Another issue which influenced the need for the change in rates was that when the Montoursville Regional Sewer System began, the area was designated as a growth corridor, a designation that remains.

“The sewage treatment plant was built at 1.5 million gallons of capacity, and we’re really only using a half a capacity today, even sometimes less than that. So we are in a great position for serving this area in the future, but the decisions of the past to have a larger sewage treatment plant means that we have debt service to pay for that is not currently being used. The plan always was that we would have the capacity used up in 25 years-that we would see that growth potential. The same is true for that outfall project. That was a legacy decision that was made back in late 1997, early 1998 for the location of the outfall line,” Weigle said.

“So, some of those decisions that we’ve had to deal with from 25 years ago, we’re faced with today and we have not seen that increase in the customer base to offset some of those costs,” she said.

Increases in the regional water system rates were also the result of decisions made in the past.

“We built a system in manageable phases to basically dovetail the Montoursville regional sewer system, and we built it in smaller phases. When we acquired the Village Water Company, which serves Bella Vista, Tules Run and River Valley town homes a development neighboring us. That owner was in some challenging compliance issues and some maintenance and equipment issues, and the PUC (Public Utilities Commission) was really starting to come down heavy on that project owner, and that’s how, when we acquired that system as a public entity, needed to reinvest in what was donated to us. So besides us building on the regional water system, we’ve also had to accept some of those asset liabilities, those limitations with that equipment in the system. So we have a lot of debt, and the regional water system has an added $150,000 annually to the budget for a C&N loan that we need to pay for now we can no longer defer that,” she said.

“That is additional debt that the county commissioners have guaranteed on our behalf, so we’re fiscally responsible to our customers, and we’re sensitive to our customer needs, but at the same time, we have this debt obligation that we need to meet, and the same time a commitment to the county to make sure that we can pay for our debt, so that the county themselves don’t have to make those payments,” she added.

Although the authority did pay off the debt for the Montoursville system, but mandated Chesapeake Bay regulations which were instituted in 2011 and 2012 which required a reinvestment in the system in order to comply.

“When we did that, instead of adding that debt on, we wrapped that debt around. So our debt is a fixed level, and it’s carrying on. The original debt is, in fact, paid off, but the debt for the sewage treatment plan improvements for Chesapeake Bay were tacked on at the end of that,” she said.

“So we have all these complex issues that we’re faced with, and unfortunately, we don’t have any known growth next year. There’s a few things that we’re anticipating, but nothing that we can, you know, rest our hat on. So we need to make some difficult decisions to be fiscally responsible and be able to pay our bills, and that’s been very challenging for us in the past three or four months to deal with,” Weigle said.

Costs have also increased for services, such as required lab testing of water and sewer samples. The Lairdsville Sewer System alone, has to have two nitrogen and phosphorous samples tested each week at a cost of $134 each time.

“That’s not a number that is very palatable, but it’s a requirement regulatorily that we have to meet,” Weigle noted.

Rate increases, in addition to those with MRSS, are: the Regional Water system, $12 to $13 per 1,000 gallons with a base rate increase of $5 per month for a 5/8 inch meter size and proportionate increases on larger size meters; Limestone Water System, a base rate increase for up to 5,000 gallons from $165 to $170 per quarter with an increase of $.75 on each consumption tier, which means that a customer using 5,001 to 20,000 will have an increase $8.25 to $9; and the Mifflin Manor Sewer System an $10 increase per month for each EDU.

Customers have the option of a 5 percent discount on sewer and stormwater account that are in good standing and prepaid in January.

Personnel costs in the 2025 budget comprise 1.8 percent of the total amount. There are 23 full-time employees and one part-time at the authority.

“Our team is extensively cross-trained, meaning that we don’t have a water department and a sewer department. Everybody here does whatever they need to in any of those systems,” she pointed out.

“The cross-training is extensive and the shared knowledge and expertise is actually very valuable for all of the systems that we own, operate or assist in managing and operating,” she added.

Next year’s budget includes a 3 percent wage increase for personnel.

“The budget has been prepared as in the past, with fiscal accountability, business continuity in mind, obviously very sensitive to our customers, but environmental responsibility and sustainability is extremely important. People don’t really realize it but the environmental regulations are becoming more and more complex,” she said, adding that they have become harder and harder to comply with and “extremely expensive.”

“They do demand a lot more of our time and that’s not just for us, that’s our industry as a whole,” she added.