During its regular meeting on August 24, the Huntsville City Council heard presentations about the needs and logistics of water system improvements and debated the appropriate way to handle Huntsville Utilities water schedule fee increase, which is to be voted on at the next meeting.

Wes Kelley, President and CEO of Huntsville Utilities, delivered a presentation explaining why there is a need for a fee increase. Kelley explained that a water fee schedule increase is necessary to accommodate improvements to the water system that will support Huntsville’s growing water needs.

“We kept seeing growth happen at a rapid pace in Huntsville and at a pace that wasn’t slowing down. So when we saw that, we realized we needed to understand what we need to do now so that we don’t make short sighted investments,” Kelley said.

As an example, Kelley said that Huntsville Utilities could try to save money in the short term by installing a 24-inch pipe, but realize 5-10 years later the same area could need a 36-inch pipe, making it necessary to replace it again.

“What do we need to do in planning so that the investments we make incrementally today fit within the larger context so that we are making prudent decisions and not jumping around playing whack a mole with this problem?”

Kevin Mullins, senior project manager of Garver Engineering, explained the need to develop a dynamic master plan accounting for Huntsville’s ever-growing population. Mullins said Garver Engineering used its existing model of the Huntsville water system to understand population demands and statistics to establish planning criteria.

Having spoken with stakeholders, surrounding communities, and other water systems, the firm projected Huntsville’s 20-year growth. They then developed water model scenarios and consolidated the results into recommendations for Huntsville Utilities.

Mullins said there are 19,000 acres of residential property that could be developed, which would increase Huntsville Utilities’ average load from 44.4 million gallons a day to 93.9 million gallons a day.

More significantly, if the commercial and industrial sector grows to its potential, commercial and industrial water usage could add 17.8 billion gallons a day of usage. Those averages do not reflect the occasional peak of water usage, which also must be accommodated.

“The Southwest water plant is going to carry most of the load for the North Huntsville industrial park growth and the southwest growth in the Greenbriar in the Limestone County area,” Mullins said. “We recommend increasing the capacity of that station to excuse me from 48 to 72 million gallons a day. That planned expansion will cost $84,600,000 at this point.”

The current proposed increase would increase water bills by approximately 35%. Around 25% of that increase would come from rising availability fees, which prompted debate from city council members. While none contested that the water bills do need to increase, there was disagreement regarding whether that additional fee should be tacked on to availability or water usage so that portion of the cost would not affect those who use their water conservatively as much as those who do not.

According to Kelley, he believes an emphasis on usage increases rather than availability increases would also be satisfactory in making the needed infrastructure improvements; he agreed to run the numbers.

The vote to increase the water bill was postponed to the next city council meeting, which is to take place on September 14 at 5:30.

For more information, please visit www.huntsvilleal.gov/government/city-council.