The Denham Springs City Council unanimously approved new sewer impact fees during its Aug. 24 meeting, citing the rising cost of expanding the city’s wastewater treatment capacity to accommodate new development.
The council spent much of the meeting discussing the fees, which are intended to help pay for new construction, upgrades, and repairs to the city’s wastewater treatment system.
Edward Aydell of Alvin Fairburn & Associates answered questions from council members and explained the rising cost of wastewater treatment.
“When we built the new wastewater treatment plant on Forrest Delatte Road about 20 years ago, the cost of sewer treatment was about $4 a gallon,” Aydell told the council. “3, 4 years ago, when you guys asked us to do an analysis of what the cost of sewer treatment was, that had risen to $14 a gallon… and when we received bids last December, the cost of sewer treatment had risen to over $30 a gallon.”
Aydell said expanding the wastewater treatment plant on Forrest Delatte Road to treat an additional 1 million gallons per day could cost approximately $30 per gallon. With construction costs continuing to rise, he said contractors are unlikely to submit bids below that amount.
Aydell also noted that improvements to sewer collection systems were not included in the impact-fee analysis.
“When you look at the sewer impact fee numbers that we worked with the city to generate, that covers just the cost to increase the capacity of the sewer treatment facility on Lockhart,” Aydell said.
“When we look at it, when I tell you the costs of sewer treatment is $30 a gallon, that doesn’t even cover the expenses that the city of Denham Springs is gonna incur to upgrade lift stations and forcemains in your collection system that are gonna have to be upgraded,” Aydell told the council.
Aydell said the city’s sewer impact fees are based on water meter size, which is “directly related to the amount of wastewater that a single family residence, or a restaurant, or a hotel is going to generate.”
A ¾-inch meter is typical for a single-family residence. Aydell said installing sewer service today for a property with that meter size could cost approximately $12,120 if the owner were a new sewer customer applying for a sewer tap.
“If you don’t do an impact fee, you need to find another revenue stream to get the money from in my opinion,” Aydell told the council, adding that the council “could raise rates on all sewer customers to try to cover it.”
“The cost is the cost, it’s not a punishment and this is not a tax,” Councilman Jim Gilbert added. “You look at a lot of areas around that don’t have the quality sewer system we have… they have a lot of impacted waterways… and we don’t have that problem.”
The new ordinance reads:
Section 106-96 be repealed and replaced with Section 106-102 as follows:
Sec. 106-102. Computation of the wastewater facilities impact fee.
(a) The amount of the wastewater facilities impact fee shall be determined by a committee consisting of the City Treasurer, an engineer, the wastewater supervisor, a City Council member and the mayor. The City Council shall be responsible for appointing the City Council representative to this committee.
(b) The impact fee may be adjusted as necessary, but shall be reconsidered no less than every ten years.
(c) Any adjustments made to the wastewater impact fee must receive approval from the City Council prior to their effective date.
(d) The wastewater facilities impact fee shall be published on the city's website or otherwise made readily available to the public.
(e) In the case of change, modification or expansion of use of an existing connection to the wastewater system, the impact fee shall be based upon the net increase in the size of the meter for the new connection over the size of the meter for the previous connection.
Following the discussion, the council unanimously approved the new sewer impact fee ordinance.
The council also scheduled three public hearings for 6 p.m. Sept. 28 on proposed amendments to the Denham Springs Code of Ordinances, including:
Finally, the council unanimously approved street closures for the Denham Springs Antiques Merchants Association Fall Festival. Rose Street, behind The Whistle Stop, will be closed from 8 a.m. Friday, Oct. 2, through 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3. Range Avenue will close through the district beginning 6 a.m. Saturday morning through 6 p.m.
