The water and wastewater departments in the town of Fairfax are running out of cash after years of mismanagement and failure to follow state health and safety regulations.
Fairfax Town Manager Mike Bishop said customers should expect to see a steep increase in their bills to help the departments survive the financial crisis.
“This was mostly a case of deferred maintenance and lack of clear oversight over the last 10, 15, 20 years,” Bishop said in a recent interview. “And so now we have to unfortunately rip the Band-Aid off and do a lot of system upgrades right now.”
Bishop, who was hired last October, laid out details of the severity of the town’s water and wastewater woes at a meeting in March, which was first reported on by the St. Albans Messenger.
The town manager and a water system consultant hired by the town provided a list of troubling findings, which included chlorine levels that were 10 times higher than the state recommends, a failure to perform regular inspections and state-mandated water testing, and a number of inoperable fire hydrants in town connected to the system.
Within the wastewater system, according to reports released by the consultants at the meeting, the former operators ignored state testing requirements and safety standards, and used an improper chemical to treat grease in the wastewater.
The town spent $18,000 to pump sludge out of the wastewater tank, after nearby residents complained of a foul odor, and the job was completely botched, the consultants found.
The smell will likely return this summer.
“Our financial projections show that the system will be out of cash by July 1 unless we take steps to review the rate structure and start adding additional users."Mike Bishop, Fairfax town manager
Bishop declined to talk about former employees or answer questions about why problems persisted for so long, as the Department of Environmental Conservation has opened an investigation into the situation in Fairfax.
In an email, Department of Environmental Conservation Wastewater Management Program Manager Heather Collins said that an analyst with the department “noticed some discrepancies” with the data Fairfax was reporting to the state last December. Collins said the department has been working with the town to assess the problems and “will direct the Town on any required corrective actions.”
She declined to answer specific questions, citing the investigation.
Bishop said the town is still figuring out what needs immediate attention, and which projects can be put off for a few years.
But the rate structure, which he said has been mismanaged for decades, has left the department deep in the red, and he said the cost to ratepayers will be significant.
“I think most people have enjoyed low water and sewer bills,” Bishop said. “And now they’re going to be paying what’s more in line with other systems. For some people that might be a bit surprising.”
Bishop said he recognized serious problems within the water and wastewater departments almost immediately after he was hired last fall.
In November he hired an outside firm, Laramie Water Resources, to take over management of the systems.
Along with uncovering the health and safety issues, Bishop said the town also learned that its water meters are not working and many customers have been undercharged for their water use.
The town also learned that both systems can accept new customers, even though they thought for years that both systems were operating at capacity.
“Our financial projections show that the system will be out of cash by July 1 unless we take steps to review the rate structure and start adding additional users,” Bishop said. “Unfortunately, as a lot of municipalities are finding out right now, things cost a lot more money now, and the cost to do all this work is going to seem high, as opposed to if it had been spread out over the last 15 or 20 years.”
