A few dozen Orwigsburg residents filled council chambers last week to express their frustration with new water and sewer rates approved the previous month.
In the month since council members approved those new rates – which were made retroactive to the beginning of the year – those residents who came to May’s meeting ready to air their grievances had received their first quarter bills. And they clearly weren’t happy.
“This letter that was sent, this is an insult,” Blake Buffington told council members, saying his bill went up 23%. “This is a travesty. I would change this in a hurry.”
Harry Steinbaecher showed council members calculations he worked out that prove residents actually pay less per gallon of water the more they use. He wasn’t happy about that. Steinbaecher said a service charge that the borough now applies to everyone’s bills (there’s one for both water and sewer service) is unfair to residents who use less.
New Water, Sewer Rates for Orwigsburg Residents
Last month, Orwigsburg council members approved new rates for its water and sewage services. Orwigsburg Borough Manager Bill Reppy says the higher rates are necessary to address the lack of necessary reserve funds.
The new quarterly rates are as follows:
- Water: $99.56/Equivalent Dwelling Unit (EDU) + $0.006 per gallon used
- Sewer: $123.07/EDU + $0.00548 per gallon
Those are an increase from $90/EDU + $6 for every 1,000 gallons for water service and $110/EDU + $4 per 1,000 gallons for sewer. Under the old rates, the first 5,000 gallons used for water and sewer were included in the EDU charge. With the new rates, the per-gallon charge starts with the first gallon and the EDU rate is charged regardless, like a service fee.
Under the new rates, the Borough says, the average customer (using about 8,100 gallons of water per quarter and 8,070 gallons for sewer) will see increases in bills of $40 per quarter for water and between $45-50 per quarter for sewer.
According to Reppy, the increases in water and sewer rates became necessary because the Borough has no reserve funds to address regular infrastructure costs to these systems and the potential future emergency.
“No business can operate at break-even or at a loss,” Reppy tells Coal Region Canary.
With the new rates in place and if future councils follow the recommendations of a consultant Orwigsburg hired a little more than two months ago, the Borough should see a reserve fund built up of about $200,000 to address these concerns. But in reality, Reppy says, that’s only half of what’s really needed in reserve funds.
Deciding to increase water and sewer rates is the result of Orwigsburg hiring a consultant – Dave Bush, of Keystone Alliance Consulting – according to Borough Manager William Reppy. Council members thought it prudent last month to accept and act on Bush’s recommendations, whom they paid $30,000.
Bush’s recommendations are to increase the service charge annually for water and sewer service between 2026 and 2031. It’ll be on those future councils to approve the increases. Without a vote, they’ll remain the same.
Here are Bush’s recommendations for future water rates in Orwigsburg. The percentage increase, year over year, is in parentheses. The overall increase between this year and 2031, if councils abide by this assessment, would be about 15%:
| WATER RATES | 2026 | 2027 (recommended) | 2028 (recommended) | 2029 (recommended) | 2030 (recommended) | 2031 (recommended) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service Charge (per EDU) | 96.79 | 99.56 (+2.86%) | 103.73 (+4.19%) | 106.18 (+2.36%) | 108.37 (+2.06%) | 111.00 (+2.43%) |
| Usage Charger (per 1,000gal) | 6.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 | 6.00 |
And these are his recommendations for sewer service in the borough. From this year until 2031, these recommendations call for a 24% increase in the service fee (per EDU rate):
| WATER RATES | 2026 | 2027 (recommended) | 2028 (recommended) | 2029 (recommended) | 2030 (recommended) | 2031 (recommended) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service Charge (per EDU) | 121.93 | 123.07 (+0.93%) | 128.23 (+4.19%) | 133.95 (+4.46%) | 141.15 (+5.38%) | 150.76 (+6.81%) |
| Usage Charger (per 1,000gal) | 5.32 | 5.48 | 5.68 | 5.88 | 6.08 | 6.30 |
“It’s not perfect.”
In response to the public outcry at last week’s meeting, council members indicated they’d consider residents’ complaints.
Council president Rick Bubeck justified the rate increases by saying that the cost to produce a gallon of water has gone up since the price of the services were last addressed by the board. However, he indicated that the new rates may need a second look.
“We really worked hard on this. Is it perfect? No, it’s not perfect,” Bubeck said. “We’ll look at these numbers again.”
Councilman Benjamin Hunter added that the amount of the service fee may need to be revisited.
The board did tell residents that were unhappy about the new service fee that collecting it does cover the fixed costs of operating the water and sewer services. Variable costs are covered by the per-gallon rates, with 15-20% of money collected going into reserve.
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