YOUNGSTOWN — A firm hired by Youngstown to analyze its wastewater finances is recommending the city approve 5% annual rate increases for four years.

That rate increase wouldn’t include about $300 million in costs for construction work under a federal improvement mandate at the center of a court dispute.

Based on the analysis, an interceptor sewer to stop wastewater from flowing into Mill Creek Park would cost $87.2 million for construction work and a “wet weather facility” to reduce combined sewer overflows would cost $232.6 million.

The rate increase would cover $34.9 million in design work for the wet weather facility and $2.3 million more needed for the interceptor’s design phase.

City council likely will consider the wastewater rate increase request listed in a report from Arcadis at a special meeting in August, said Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th Ward, and chairman of the body’s public utilities committee.

Arcadis is an international firm that specializes in water and sewer analysis that has done that work for Youngstown for years.

Arcadis provided information about the potential rate increases at a council public utilities committee meeting Monday. Ray said a follow-up committee meeting is planned.

Council won’t consider the proposal until it gets written notice from the city’s law department the rate increase is legally mandated, Ray said.

But he acknowledged, “If you don’t raise rates, you’ll have to take debt so we have to raise rates to maintain the system.”

Charles Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works, couldn’t be reached Tuesday to comment on the proposed rate increase.

The rate increases would start Jan. 1.

Arcadis recommended in October 2018 that rates be raised 8% a year for five years, starting Jan. 1, 2020. But Mayor Jamael Tito Brown agreed to ask council to approve 4% raises for four years and its members complied.

An average city wastewater customer is charged for the processing of 500 cubic feet of wastewater a month, costing $79.09. Under Arcadis’ proposal, that amount would go to $83.05 in January, hitting $96.14 by Jan. 1, 2028.

Ray said it is better to pay cash for design work than borrow the money because of the interest rate.

While Ray said he and other council members understand the high cost residents pay for wastewater fees and don’t want to add to the burden, there is little choice. Ray also said the city is working to obtain grant money to help with the cost of the construction.

The actual facility’s projected cost of $232.6 million in the analysis is not included in the proposed sewer increase. That project is listed as starting in 2027.

“This is from an unfunded mandate from the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency),” he said. “But we are improving water quality and discharge. The system was built over a century ago and work to improve it has been delayed for decades.The longer we wait, the more expensive it becomes.”

City council in May agreed to hire a consultant for $3 million for preliminary design work on the facility to analyze and develop control measures for a combined sewer overflow at the confluence of Crab Creek and the Mahoning River near downtown.

That project is the subject of a court claim filed by the city against the federal government asking that it not be responsible for the entire project. The city objects because of its high cost and there no longer being a need for such a large amount of work.

Also not included in the possible rate increase is a projected $87.2 million plan to replace 13 overflows that dump wastewater into Mill Creek’s Lake Glacier and Lake Cohasset and build an interceptor.

The $4.8 million for the project’s design work was approved by the city using a portion of its American Rescue Plan money.

The city raised sewer rates by 259% since 2001 to pay for the wastewater upgrades as part of the consent decree.

CONSENT DECREE

The federal EPA originally had ordered the city in 2002 to do $310 million worth of work, but it was negotiated down to $160 million in 2014 with the expectation it would be finished in 20 years.

The city has tried to get that price down further, but federal authorities have rejected those requests.

That led the city to asking U.S. District Court Judge Christopher A. Boyko on March 15 to reconsider the consent decree. The federal government opposes that. A status hearing with attorneys from both sides is set for July 9.

Also, the city insists in court filings and interviews that if Youngstown complied with the mandates now the cost would be more than $380 million — well over twice what it agreed to do 10 years ago.

The first phase was upgrades to the city’s wastewater treatment plant that have been completed.

The initial construction estimate was $37.3 million, but city court filings say it cost Youngstown $70 million.

That work helped reduce the sewer overflows that would be part of the wet weather facility project, the city’s court filing states.

The wet weather facility was supposed to be phase two of the work, at a cost of $62 million, and was required to start Feb. 7, 2022. The work hasn’t begun, except the city agreeing in May to spend $3 million on pre-design work.

The Arcadis study put the cost of that facility at $232.6 million.

The city has offered to build a storage bin, which would be smaller and less expensive than a wet weather facility, to hold flow during a storm event and then release it back into the system as one option with another being a less expensive facility at the wastewater treatment plant to provide what it says is the same level of control.

The federal government has rejected that proposal and last year assessed a $1.47 million penalty on the city, demanding that half — $739,500 — be paid to the federal EPA and allowing the Ohio EPA to demand the other half. The Ohio EPA has declined to seek that penalty.

The interceptor design work was approved March 15, but under the federal decree it was supposed to start July 11, 2020, with construction beginning this past April 5.

Also, that project’s construction was estimated to cost $47.7 million and will now cost $72.5 million, according to the court filing.

The Arcadis study said that project would cost about $87.2 million with $28 million of the cost in 2025, $30.5 million in 2028 and $28.7 million in 2030.

Without a rate increase, the city’s wastewater budget would be out of money by 2029, according to Arcadis.

Have an interesting story? Contact David Skolnick by email at dskolnick@vindy.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @dskolnick.