PELL CITY — A civil engineer testified Tuesday the city’s water system is about topped out during peak demands for water.“Based on the numbers we are seeing, peak day uses in the summer time, they are behind,” Byron Woods, a civil engineer for Municipal Consultants of Birmingham, said about the city’s water supply. “They don’t need to tie anyone else onto the system.”
Woods, who is the city’s contract engineer, spent all day Tuesday on the witness stand answering questions, mostly from Birmingham attorney Jesse Evans III, with the law firm Haskell, Slaughter, Young & Ridker LLC, who represents a group challenging the implementation of the city’s new sewer impact and water capital recovery fees.
The St. Clair County Homebuilders Association, Bucky Inc. and QCC Inc. filed a joint lawsuit against Pell City, contending the city does not have the authority to assess sewer impact and water capital recovery fees without state legislative approval.
The group also says the fees are unconstitutional, injure builders, new homeowners and those seeking to locate in Pell City, and unfairly singles out developers, who will end up footing the majority of the repair bills for the aging sewer and water systems.
Woods testified Tuesday that in 2000, the city pumped 3.62 million gallons of water in a single day, when well pumps should have only pumped up to 3.2 million gallons. He said well pumps have worked overtime and should only operate continuously for up to 18 hours a day.
He said work is under way to keep up with the growing demand for water and sewer.
Woods testified the city is cranking up a new well in the southeast section of the city and pointed out the city joined the Coosa Valley Water Authority, which is building a surface water treatment facility in Ragland to help supply future water demands in the region, including Pell City’s water needs.
Woods also testified Tuesday the city needs about $14 million to complete work required by an Alabama Department of Environmental Management consent order.
Woods said the city has about $2.6 million left from a $10 million bond issue it obtained to complete mandatory sewer work.
He said in 2006, it was estimated to cost the city $21.3 million to complete all required work outlined in the ADEM consent order.
According to the ADEM order, the city has until 2012 to meet all the required work set out in the consent decree or face stiff fines.
Woods testified that sewer impact fees could pay for part but not all of the sewer upgrades required by ADEM.
He said he used a computation method accepted by the American Water Works Association in helping the city establish new sewer impact and water capital recovery fees.
Woods said he used the “Incremental Cost Method,” which he said was the best accepted method of computing water capital improvement and sewer impact fees when a municipality must pay for expensive capital improvement projects to water and sewer operations.
Woods testified the city could actually justify up to $39,000 per new structure under the “Incremental Cost Method” of computing water capital recovery and sewer impact fees.
The city opted for much lower fees, he said.
According to the ordinance passed by the mayor and City Council in April 2007, it costs $2,300 for each new structure to tap onto the sewer system.
Water capital recovery fees are based on the size water line used for each structure. The fee varies from $1,550 for a 3-quarter inch water line to up to $19,740 for a 4-inch or larger water line.
The council amended the ordinance shortly after its passage, lowering sewer impact and water capital recovery fees for new hotels, motels, apartments, nursing homes and assistant living complexes construction, while increasing impact fees for the construction of hospitals built within the city.
Woods testified the sewer impact and water capital improvement fees are based, in part, on historic water use for those type structures.
He also testified Tuesday the city has problems with two of its wells.
Both wells, he said, are not able to produce their full capacity at all times.
Woods also stressed the importance of redundancy as a safeguard for the city water system.
“We don’t want people running out of water,” he said. “That’s why we believe in redundancy.”
Woods said he did not use growth projections, but instead looked at historical increases in water and sewer use when estimating the new sewer impact and water recovery fees for the city.
Since April 2007, the city has collected $153,000 in sewer impact and water capital recovery fees. That money is kept in a separate account until the outcome of this case is determined.
The civil trial will continue today at 9 a.m. at the courthouse in Pell City before Circuit Court Judge Jim Hill.
