A new comprehensive water system plan for the city of Langley surprised many city residents Wednesday night on just how expensive it can be to maintain a water system.
Before the Langley City Council, engineer William Reynolds from Hammond Collier Wade Livingstone of Seattle recommended a 1 million gallon water storage tank, approximately 6,000 feet of new water mains and a 25-percent increase in billing fees and water rates if the city is planning to grow in the future.
And that was just the beginning. Also suggested to Langley City Council members was a water conservation program, a cross-connection control plan, a groundwater protection plan and an emergency response plan that assesses the vulnerability of Langley’s water system.
Fortunately for the city and its residents, the suggestions are, for now, optional.
The plan presented by Reynolds was actually just an update, an update that should have been done last year. The city is required to update its water system plan every six years. However, the last update was written nine years ago.
Reynolds assured city council and approximately 10 Langley residents at the meeting that fee increases and expansions are not uncommon and not as burdensome as some might believe.
“Growth pays for growth,” he said.
On Thursday Langley Mayor Lloyd Furman said the plan isn’t a mandate by any means.
Furman said the council and city staff will take Reynolds’ recommendations only as suggestions, even though the city had to pay $32,000 — the cost of the engineering update — for them.
Lynn Hicks, Langley’s city attorney, agreed the Hammond Collier plan update is only a suggestion. She said the recommendations are a tool with which the city can assess what projects Langley should look at in the next few years. Without those plans on paper, Langley would be unprepared and possibly unable to apply for or receive water-related grants or loans in the future.
The plan contains some big potential changes. For instance, it recommends that water connection fees be raised from $1,500 to $4,700 for new construction. Reynolds said this price is lower than the $10,000 paid per hookup in King County.
Some of Langley’s pipes are due for an upgrade too, according to Reynolds. In the six- and 20-year improvement plans he presented Wednesday, approximately 6,000 linear feet of new pipes would be installed.
However, according city public works director Rick Hill, Langley’s pipes are in good working order. The existing 4-inch pipes are either made of cement or cast iron, and most of them are a four-inch pipe. Reynolds’ plan suggests installing new 8-inch pipes to increase water flow and increase the system reliability.
Water rates would increase under the plan too. Current water rates are $1.50 per 1,000 gallons of water. The current monthly billing fee is $22 each bill. If raised, the new rates would increase to $27.50. The water rate would increase to $1.88 per 1,000 gallons.
If an average two-family residence consumed 10,000 gallons every two months (the length of the billing period), the bill under current pricing would be $37. That would rise to $46.30, if the city took Reynolds’ suggestions.
Council members did raise concern over the expense of the proposals.
“That’s a pretty healthy price tag on that,” said council member Ray Honerlah.
To avoid the additional future costs of doing a water rate study, Hicks said city staff has participated in a rate-making seminar. To have a company like Hammond Collier do a rate-study could cost as much as $30,000.
